Daily summary: Bulls in a defensive mode before the end of the year

Wednesday's session on European markets started relatively flat, with the major stock indexes showing little deviation. Slightly better sentiment was provided all the time by the easing of tightening in China, but this changed shortly after the opening of the US session. Index futures from France and Germany are currently losing nearly 0.5%;

The major stock indices on Wall Street are under pressure today, although they managed to hold off the sell-off and erased some of the declines. The NASDAQ is retreating 0.71%. The Dow Jones falls 0.58%, the S&P 500 loses 0.64% and managed to get back above 3800 points. Concerns around the rise of covid cases in the Middle Kingdom and macro data have boosted risk aversion;

The November index of pending home sales contracts in the United States today recorded the second-lowest reading in the history of the last 20 years. On a monthly basis, the index lost 4% against expectations of -1%. On a year-over-year basis, the index is already down 38.6%;

Apple (AAPL.US) shares slid to new one-year lows near $127 per share. Investors fear that a surge in coronavirus cases in China will trigger a renewed turn toward 'Covid Zero' restrictions exacerbating the US giant's iPhone supply and manufacturing liquidity problems.

The best performing currencies in today's session were the New Zealand dollar and the Australian dollar. The Canadian dollar and the Japanese yen performed much less well.

Source: xStation 5

NATGAS loses 10% amid forecasts of record heat in the US. Regardless of the Elliott winter storm front raging through the United States, gas prices are falling as weather models forecast record warming in the US, over the next 12 days. According to NatGasWeather forecasts, the improved weather should result in the lowest demand for natural gas in the US in more than 40 years.

Crude oil retreated to near $83 per barrel in the face of the prospect of a recession in 2023 and falling demand for crude. Volatility may return after 9:30 pm GMT, when the API inventory reading will be known.

Solana cryptocurrency is losing another week in a row and is already nearly 94% below its price peak in the fall of 2021. Today alone, the project is down nearly 11% and is under increasing pressure from the fall of FTX. In addition, the pressure is created by speculation about the possible desire of major token holders to sell out, the decline of TVL and the migration of NFT projects from the Solana blockchain.

Precious metals were under pressure today and gave back some of the gains of recent days. Gold retreated to the area of $1,810, the price of silver fell to $23.5 per ounce. As a result, precious metals mining companies like Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM.US) and Anglogold Ashanti (AU.US) were losing today.

Today's trading session brings mostly declines in the main economic sectors. Nonetheless, we can see small increases in the stocks of individual banks and pharmaceutical companies. Source: xStation 5