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Stocks Retreat As Democrats Lead In Georgia Senate Runoff Elections

By:
Vladimir Zernov
Updated: Jan 7, 2021, 09:57 UTC

Big Tech stocks are under pressure as traders fear that Democrats will introduce strict regulations for major tech companies.

U.S. Stock Market

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Traders Sell Tech Stocks

S&P 500 futures are losing ground in premarket trading as Democrats look ready to win both seats in Georgia runoff elections and take control of the Senate.

Nasdaq stocks are hit hard as traders fear that Democrats will introduce strict regulations for Big Tech. Currently, Apple shares are losing about 1.5% in premarket trading, Facebook shares are down by 2.3% while Amazon stock is down by 1.5%.

Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar continues to lose ground against a broad basket of currencies as traders bet that Democrats will soon introduce another stimulus package.

The fear of additional money-printing put significant pressure on U.S. government bond prices and pushed the yield of the 10-year government bonds above the psychologically important 1.00% level.

The bond market is typically considered as “smart money” so the sell-off in U.S. government bonds indicates that institutional investors are seriously worried about the potential impact of additional stimulus.

OPEC+ Reached A Compromise Deal

OPEC+ has finally managed to reach consensus on production cuts thanks to Saudi Arabia which offered voluntary production cuts of 1 million barrels per day (bpd).

Other producers will keep production at current levels in February and March while Russia and Kazakhstan will be allowed to raise production by 75,000 bpd in February and 75,000 bpd in March.

Not surprisingly, oil is trying to settle above the $50 level while oil-related stocks look ready to continue their upside move. That said, it should be noted that once the initial euphoria is over, the market may start to question the reasons for a major 1 million bpd voluntary cut from Saudi Arabia which signals that demand for oil remains much weaker than expected.

ADP Employment Change Report Disappoints

The U.S. has just provided ADP Employment Change report for December which indicated that private businesses fired 123,000 workers while analysts expected that they would add 88,000 jobs.

This is the first negative ADP Employment Change report since April when it indicated a loss of 19.4 million jobs.

On Friday, the U.S. will provide Non Farm Payrolls report for December which is currently expected to show that economy added 100,000 jobs. However, analysts have some time to change their forecasts as the pressure from the second wave of the virus appears to be stronger than expected.

For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out our economic calendar.

About the Author

Vladimir is an independent trader and analyst with over 10 years of experience in the financial markets. He is a specialist in stocks, futures, Forex, indices, and commodities areas using long-term positional trading and swing trading.

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