Tech Stocks Drag Market Lower

Tech Stocks Are Under Pressure On Antitrust Concerns

Yesterday, S&P 500 found itself under pressure after Federal Trade Commission and 46 states announced lawsuits against Facebook, alleging that the company used its monopoly power to crush competition.

Worries about increased regulation of Big Tech companies have increased in recent months so the news caused a sell-off in the tech space.

[fx-dianomivideo-ad]

It looks like this sell-off is set to continue today as shares of Facebook, Microsoft, Alphabet, Apple are losing ground in premarket trading. A potential sell-off in tech stocks may present a serious problem for S&P 500 due to their weight in the index.

[fx-article-ad]European Central Bank Boosts Its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme

European Central Bank has recently announced its Interest Rate Decision and left the rate unchanged, in line with analyst consensus.

ECB decided to increase its pandemic emergency puchse programme (PEPP) by 500 billion euro to a total of 1.85 billion euro. While this increase was mostly expected by traders and analysts, it may provide some support to global markets.

Meanwhile, EU and UK negotiators have time until the end of the week to craft a Brexit deal. While previous deadlines have been ignored, it looks like this deadline is a serious one. A no-deal Brexit will likely put pressure on global markets.

It looks like markets are getting more nervous about the outcome of negotiations, and GBP/USD is under significant pressure today.

Initial Jobless Claims Jump To 853,000

U.S. has just released Initial Jobless Claims and Continuing Jobless Claims reports.

The Initial Jobless Claims report indicated that 853,000 Americans filed for unemployment benefits in a week compared to analyst consensus of 725,000. Meanwhile, Continuing Jobless Claims increased to 5.76 million while analysts expected that they would decline to 5.36 million.

In addition, U.S. provided inflation data for November. Inflation Rate grew by 1.2% year-over-year compared to analyst consensus of 1.1%. Core Inflation Rate was in line with analyst projections at 1.6%.

The big increase in Initial Jobless Claims is a negative surprise for the market which may put additional pressure on stocks.

For a look at all of todays economic events, check out our economic calendar.