Investing.com - Here are the top five things you need to know in financial markets on Monday, June 12:
1. Wall Street tech giants set to slump again
U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Monday morning, with the technology sector on track for a second straight session of heavy losses.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures pointed to a drop of 50 points, or roughly 0.9%, at the open, the blue-chip Dow futures slumped 32 points, or around 0.2%, while the S&P 500 futures ticked down 7 points, or about 0.3%.
Among active pre-market movers on Monday, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) traded more than 2% lower following a downgrade to neutral by Mizuho Securities analysts – the second ratings cut in a week.
Tech darlings like Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) were also among the biggest losers in pre-market action, with each stock down by more than 2%.
Investors ditched tech stocks in late afternoon U.S. trading on Friday, with shares of Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Apple, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) all selling off, as some analysts raised questions about the lofty valuations of the top-five tech leaders, known as the FAAMG.
2. U.S. tech sell-off spreads to Europe, Asia
Global stock markets were in the red on Monday, as sentiment took a hit following a slide in U.S. technology shares late on Friday.
A big fall in Apple suppliers and other tech stocks hurt European shares, with Germany's DAX, France's CAC and Britain's FTSE all in negative territory in mid-morning trade.
Europe's tech index was down more than 3% (SX8P), on track for its biggest one day loss since October 2016.
Earlier, Asian stocks ended mostly lower, with electronics heavyweights such as Samsung Electronics (KS:005930) and Tencent Holdings (HK:0700) leading losses.
Japan's Nikkei closed down around 0.5% and South Korea's KOSPI slid 1%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 1.2% while Shanghai ended down 0.6%.
3. British pound edges lower amid political uncertainty
The British pound edged lower on Monday as embattled British Prime Minister Theresa May scrambled to pick up the pieces and reunite her Conservative Party after a disastrous election that could disrupt Brexit negotiations.
Sterling last traded at 1.2705 against the dollar, down around 0.3% on the day, after sliding 1.7% on Friday, its biggest one-day drop in around eight months.
The pound had tumbled by as much as 2.5% in the previous session to its lowest since mid-April after no single party won a clear claim to power in the U.K. election on Thursday.
Prime Minister Theresa May will try to convince lawmakers from her Conservative Party at a private meeting in parliament later on Monday that she should remain as leader. If she fails at the meeting to reassure lawmakers that she can govern effectively her critics are likely to step up calls for her to go.
The political turmoil comes a week before Britain is due to start negotiating the terms of its exit from the European Union in talks of unprecedented complexity that are supposed to wrap up by the end of March 2019, when Britain actually leaves.
Media reports indicate that the new government could adopt a soft Brexit to keep the U.K. in the single market despite previous statements and aims of the Conservative leader.
4. Receding political turmoil lifts the euro
In contrast, the euro and its bonds rallied, as investors cheered a bumper weekend for pro-EU and pro-business politics in France and Italy.
The first round of parliamentary election results in France, which were held on Sunday, gave President Emmanuel Macron a huge majority to push through his pro-business reforms.
Italy also offered some comfort after the eurosceptic 5-Star Movement suffered a severe setback in local elections after failing to make the run-off vote in almost all the main cities up for grabs.
The euro edged up 0.2% to 1.1220 against the dollar, staying below a seven-month high of 1.1285 set in early June.
In the debt market, France's bonds closed the gap on benchmark German Bunds, while Italian government bond yields, which move inverse to price, fell to their lowest since January.
5. Bitcoin, Ethereum rally continues
Bitcoin touched the $3,000-level for the first time on Monday, while Ethereum rose to yet another all-time high, as a monster rally continues amid bullish noises around the future of the cryptocurrencies.
Prices of the digital currency hit a daily peak of $3,000.00 on the U.S.-based GDAX exchange at one point, its highest on record. Other big exchanges such as Poloniex, Bitfinex and BitStamp also showed the cryptocurrency around the $3,000-level early Monday.
Since the start of the year, the price of bitcoin has soared roughly 200%, taking the total value of the cryptocurrency in circulation to around $48 billion.
Bullishness around bitcoin has stoked appetite for other cryptocurrencies. One in particular known as Ethereum is gaining traction.
Ethereum has risen from $8.24 on January 1, to a high of $379.00 on Monday. This represents a whopping 3,000% increase year-to-date.