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U.S.: Energy and Consumer Discretionary Stocks Down

Energy (-5.0%), consumer discretionary (-4.9%), healthcare (-4.6%) and real estate (-4.0%) sectors led the decline in the market for October. The most obvious reason for the decline in energy stocks is related to the lower crude oil prices as sentiments weakened due to the conflict between Israel and Palestine. It was not only that, even solar companies such as Solaredge (-38%) and Enphase (-32%) also declined.

Meanwhile, consumer discretionary stocks suffered mainly due to Tesla (-20%) as its 3Q results disappoint while Elon Musk has come out to say that the Cybertruck development will take some time. In the healthcare sector, major players such as Moderna (-26%) and Bio-Techne (-19%) dragged the sector down.

China: Property and Tourism Stocks Drag Overall Market

Moving over to China, it is no surprise that property stocks (-6.1%) continued to drag the overall market down. Losers were led by China Fortune Land (-14%) and China Building Material Test (-11%). What’s surprising is that several tourism-related stocks also suffered such as China CYTS Tours (-13%), Anhui Jiuhashuan Tourism (-13%) and Hainan Airlines (-12%). Just recently, news has been about that local tourism has been recovering at a steady rate in China but it seems like this is not the case.

Another major stock to look at also is Foxconn Industrial (-26%), the producer and assembler for Apple. It has recently come under investigation by the Chinese government as part of the tech war between the U.S. and China.

Southeast Asia: Only Malaysia gained, with Vietnam, Thailand and Philippines markets in the red

What a rare week. Malaysia is the only market in Southeast Asia in the positive, and crude oil prices also declined for the month. Part of it might be due to the Budget 2024 announcement, but the sectors that gained the most are utilities, financials and energy.

Meanwhile, Vietnam bore the brunt of a sharp drop in the China market, with consumer, real estate and utilities sectors leading the charge into the abyss. In Thailand, it doesn’t seem like the appointment of a new prime minister managed to arrest the decline.

The weird thing is that the Philippines still can’t get a hold of their inflation. Its central bank is still projecting for a 5.1% to 5.9% inflation rate for 2023, which is bizarre considering that other nations are starting to get inflation under control.

For you: It seems like global markets are still declining for the moment. Take heed of the risks coming from a global recession, which will first affect the U.S. and Europe markets, before spreading to other Asian markets. In China, the situation doesn’t seem to be getting better.