US markets closed on Friday; EU markets open mixed, while Asian markets rebound

The US markets will remain close on Friday on account of Independance day on July 4th. Hence, the US markets will observe the Independance day Holiday on 3rd July. On Thursday, the markets closed mixed with Dow Jones surging over 600 points to close at record high levels. Meanwhile the NASDAQ 100 index plunged over 200 points. The divergence in the direction was primarily due to multiple reasons.

The Dow Jones rose over 600 points on Thursday, after a softer-than-expected June jobs report eased concerns over an imminent interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve. Traders took note of a U.S. Labor Department report showing that employment in the U.S. increased by much less than expected in June.

The report said non-farm payroll employment rose by 57,000 jobs in June after increasing by 129,000 jobs in May. Street had expected employment to climb by 114,000 jobs, compared with the originally reported increase of 172,000 jobs in the previous month. Meanwhile, the Commerce Department reported a sharp decline in new orders for U.S. manufactured goods in May, primarily due to a steep drop in durable goods orders. Additionally, first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly edged lower last week.

Investors remained anxious on the overheated valuations of tech stocks, which led to profit booking in tech stocks. The shares of key chip makers like Micron, AMD, Intel and NVIDIA, fell as much as 6% on Thursday, extending the correction for the second consecutive day. Consequently, NASDAQ index plunged over 200 points.

Meanwhile, Asian markets rebounded from recent lows as investors in Japan and Korea, reconsidered the risks in chip and tech stocks. The Japanese Nikkei surged 1.5%, Hang Seng jumped 1.2%. While the KOSPI index surged over 5.5%, the most amongst the Asian peers.