The Independence Day holiday ahead for the US, where markets will be closed, sapped a lot of interest from the timezone here today. Japanese stocks, nevertheless, rose. The TOPIX index hit its highest ever, climbing above highs last seen in December 1989.

Across major FX there was little movement. USD/JPY dripped under 161.30 but has come back to be around 161.45 or so.

From the Fed, Chicago branch President Goolsbee spoke with the BBC. Goolsbee expressed concern about the pace at which the labour market in the US was slowing. Has he got an inkling of a poor employment report coming up on Friday? We’ll see.

BTC and ETH lost more ground. There were no obvious fresh catalysts.

In political news US President Biden met with state Democratic Governors. The official readout from the meeting is he has their support to continue. We’ll see on that too. A US media outlet, meanwhile, posted a covertly recorded video (which I assume was not a fake, but who knows?) where Trump said, of the debate:

  • “He just quit, you know—he’s quitting the race.”
  • “I got him out ... and that means we have Kamala.”

Ahh politics … is it November yet?

Happy UK election, and Happy US Independence Day, to those celebrating.

TOPIX yearly candles 04 July 2024 2