nasdaq
The Nasdaq 100 opened sharply lower after the US Senate runoff elections in Georgia tilted towards the Democratic candidates.
A Democratic majority in the Senate means that hardliner Mitch McConnell loses his long-standing position as the Majority Leader. This situation also gives President-Elect Joe Biden a softer landing in the US Congress as he aims for a higher tax policy and more stringent regulation on tech companies.
Furthermore, the mass arrests in Hong Kong under the new security law could spark off a new round of US-China tensions, which has spooked investors in several Nasdaq-listed stocks with exposure to the Chinese market.
Investors also did not get any joy from the downbeat ADP employment numbers, which showed that the US economy bled 123K private-sector jobs, compared with the consensus of +60K and last month’s 304,000 job additions.
The Nasdaq 100 is currently trading lower by 0.8% at the time of writing.
Today’s drop marks a further retreat from Monday’s all-time highs at 12972.3. However, the ascending trendline maintains the integrity of the uptrend.
12972.3 remains the price to beat for bulls, while a decline that takes the index below the trendline in a breakdown move targets 12489.7 (21 December lows) as the initial target. 12163.4 and 12003.6 are also in the picture and could become the new downside targets if the breakdown move persists.
