Trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange opened with sharp price declines in the shadow of the falls recorded last Friday on stock exchanges around the world.
Trading resumed this morning after a three-day break due to the holidays, during which the dollar jumped against the shekel by 1.6% and is now trading between banks around the level of NIS 3.27.
The euro traded 0.6% higher at NIS 3.5340.
The Tel Aviv 35 Index and the Tel Aviv 125 Index are down 2.25%.
Last Friday, the leading US indices collapsed due to two main reasons: disappointing business results presented by some giant corporations in the first quarter financial statements and also due to investors expecting that the US interest rate hike process will be faster than forecast.
This, after the chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, estimated last Thursday that the Fed would have to make at least two interest rate hikes of 0.5%, which boosted expectations in the interest rate market and strengthened the dollar.
Recall that US inflation has reached 8.5% in the past year, a record high of 40 years, which has already caused the central bank to begin the process of raising interest rates last month.
S&P closed down 2.8% - the sharpest drop in a month and a half, and the NASDAQ index lost 2.6% and from the beginning of the month 9% is close to defining the worst month since 2008. The "fear index" (VIX) which measures market volatility reached its monthly peak , The dollar strengthened against most of the leading currencies and, as mentioned, also against the shekel.
This week, financial reports from the technology giants - Apple, Amazon and Microsoft - are expected to be published, which will determine the direction of the markets in the future.
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