According to State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus, the shutdown was ordered to protect American intellectual property and the private information of its citizens.
Wall Street
This affected the actions of everyone. However, after a volatile session, on Wall Street, both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S & P500 closed up 0.6%, while the technological Nasdaq Composite added just 0.2%, limited by a 1.2% drop in Amazon.
“Investors are hungry for profits and cannot get them in the bond market, so they are looking for stocks,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.
“But Despite indices rising, investors appear to be increasingly cautious“he added.
The figures from the previous day had shown more than 1,000 deaths in the US from Covid-19, bringing the total number of deaths from the disease to almost 142,000. Experts warn that the number will increase further due to the increase in infections.
In that framework, Democratic and Republican congressmen remained divided over the details of a new stimulus package for the US economy totaling close to a trillion dollars.less than two weeks after the benefits of millions of unemployed Americans expire.
Europe
Following international conflicts and a rise in coronavirus cases on the continent, European shares fell on Wednesday.
On a day that marked the end of a three-day upward streak, the benchmark STOXX 600 ended with a 0.9% drop, the steepest for a single day in a month.
Shares in the energy sector were hit hardest and fell 2.8%, after a smaller-than-expected decline in US crude inventories, which added pressure to oil in the international market. The shares of Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Total SA lost more than 3%.
The news ruined the mood after the European Union (EU) reached an agreement on Tuesday to create a € 750 billion recovery fund to help their economies amid the crisis.
Petroleum
Oil prices fell after data from the US government showed a surprising increase in crude inventories in the country.
Brent crude lost 3 cents to u$s44,29 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil fell 2 cents to u $ s41.90 per barrel.
Crude and distillate inventories increased unexpectedly and fuel demand fell in the last week, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported this day, as the increase in cases of coronavirus begins to affect consumption in the US again. .
Oil stocks rose 4.9 million barrels in the week ended July 17, to 536.6 million barrels, when a decline of 2 million barrels was expected.
“Overall, this suggests that the demand recovery we’ve seen appears to be stagnant,” said Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures in Chicago.
Oro
In this context of uncertainty and tension, gold prices climbed again to nine-year highs.
Spot gold reached its highest level since September 2011, hitting $ 1,870 an ounce. At the close, the precious metal was up 1.3% to cap $ 1.865.61, while US gold futures gained 1.2% to $ 1.865.1 an ounce.
“Gold is rising and that is mainly due to geopolitical tensions with China. There seems to be no end in sight for this escalation, “said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA.
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