Morgans AM: Wednesday, 1 December 2021

Morgans Financial Limited

Fresh concerns about the potentially damaging economic effect of the Omicron coronavirus variant and hawkish comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell dragged US equity markets lower - Dow dropped -652-points or -1.86%, with American Express Co (-3.52%) and Salesforce.Com Inc (-3.97%) among the key drags on the index. The broader S&P500 -1.90%. Communication Services (down -3%) led all eleven primary sectors lower, with eight primary sectors logging falls of over >2%. Mastercard Inc (down -2.50%) announced after the closing bell that its directors authorized an +11% dividend increase (to US$0.49c per share) and an US$8B share buyback program. The technology-centric Nasdaq lost -1.55%. Amazon.com Inc (down -1.53%) is reportedly working on custom silicon chips for its hardware network switches to take on Intel Corp (-1.60%) and Nvidia Corp (-2.10%). according to Reuters. The chips, which could help Amazon improve its internal infrastructure as well as AWS, are said to be the result of Amazon’s US$350M acquisition of Israeli chipmaking firm Annapurna Labs back in 2015. Microsoft Corp hosted their Annual General Meeting overnight. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 fell -1.92%.