Where is the market headed?
We are nearing the end of the month, and last night was an important one for global markets. The FOMC meeting in the US took place, where the committee announced a quarter percent rate cut. However, there was some disagreement within the FOMC, and they have indicated that a rate cut in December is not certain yet.
What makes things even more unusual is that the US government is still in partial shutdown, meaning that no new reports or official data on inflation or unemployment are being released. Usually, the interest rate committee depends heavily on this data before making any decision, but this time, they had to act without proper information — almost shooting in the dark.
Soon after the announcement of this rate cut, there was a sharp sell-off in risk assets. It was quite unexpected, but maybe it was a “sell on news” kind of event, as markets had already rallied in anticipation.
Market Overview
Now, looking at the Indian markets, not much movement has been happening lately. We have spent the last seven sessions moving up and down without any clear direction — a phase of consolidation.
Nifty fell 0.68% today.
Nifty Next 50
Nifty Junior slipped 0.22% after a strong previous session.
Nifty Mid and Small Cap
Midcaps were down 0.16%, and Small caps were almost flat.
Bank Nifty
Bank Nifty also fell 0.6%. The fall was mostly seen in large-cap stocks, suggesting possible FII selling.
GOLD
On the other hand, gold has started to make a comeback, up 2% from yesterday, now trading around ₹12,084 per gram (or ₹1,20,840 per 10 grams).
SILVER
Silver is also up 1.67%, though still stuck in a consolidation range.
USD/INR
Meanwhile, USD/INR has risen sharply again to 88.63, very close to its all-time high.
Advance Decline Ratio
Market breadth remained weak with 184 advances against 316 declines.
Heat Maps
Pharma stocks were among the worst hit, with Sun Pharma, Dr. Reddy’s, and Cipla falling. Heavyweights like Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Reliance, and Infosys also ended lower. However, Canara Bank gained 3%, while Adani Green, BPCL, and Hindustan Zinc were slightly in the green.
Mover Of The Day
Vaibhav Global jumped over 13% intraday, after a strong profit rise and dividend news, and PolicyBazaar gained 7% on strong insurance growth.
Sectoral Overview
No major sectors performed well overall; tourism gained slightly by 0.15%, while services and financial sectors fell around 0.7% to 0.8%.
Sector of the Day
Nifty Service Sector Index
U.S. Market
In the US markets, before the rate cut announcement, NASDAQ was up 0.55%, Dow Jones slipped 0.16%, and S&P 500 was flat.
Some of the biggest movers included Caterpillar, Palantir, Broadcom, Nvidia, and Alphabet. The weekend investing US portfolio holds some of these stocks.
Tweets Of the Day
Copper also hit a record high, which usually signals strength in the entire commodities complex. Metals like steel, aluminum, and zinc have been rising lately, showing that demand is strong across the board.
Nvidia’s stock also hit a new milestone, touching a market cap of $5 trillion. To put that in perspective, the entire Indian stock market is valued at about the same level. It’s incredible to see such wealth creation in a single company. Just a few years ago, $1 trillion was considered huge, and now companies are reaching four and five trillion. This shows how the value of money is changing — or rather, how the dollar is slowly losing its strength.
As debt piles up globally, asset prices everywhere are going higher. In this environment, traditional valuation metrics like 10x or 20x earnings are losing meaning because if everything trades at 50x, that becomes the new normal.
