The USD is weaker
To start the trading week, the AUD (followed by the NZD) is the strongest, while the JPY (followed by the USD) is the weakest. The USD was the strongest currency last week. The changes and ranges are modest to start the week with the EURUSD (27 pips), USDJPY (30 pips), GBPUSD (40 pips), USDCHF (25 pips) and USDCAD (35 pips) all having ranges that are 50% or less of the average ranges over the last month of trading.
Pres. Biden and China's Xi will have a virtual meeting tonight where the Pres. is expected to tell the China leader to "play by the rules of the road" and to set the terms for future US-China competition. There is no expectations of any concrete decisions being made.
US stocks are higher after the first down week in over 5 weeks (but Friday cut largely in the decline with strong gains). European shares are mostly higher. US yields are lower today. Today Canada manufacturing sales (est. -3.0% versus a 0.5% last month), and wholesale sales (est 1.1% versus 0.3% last month) will be released at 8:30 AM. In the US the Empire State manufacturing index will also be released at 8:30 a.m. ET with expectations up 22.1 versus 19.8 last month.
Over the weekend, Japan said its GDP fell -0.8% QoQ vs -0.2% est, while China industrial production (+3.5% vs +3.0% est), and retail sales data (+4.9% vs 3.8% est) were better than expected.
In other markets as North American traders enter for the day are showing:
- Spot gold is trading down $3.77 or -0.2% at $1860.91 after last week's push higher.
- Spot silver is down $0.16 -0.63% $25.14
- WTI crude oil futures are trading lower by about one dollar or -1.21% at $79.77
- The price of bitcoin is trading at $65,879.34.
In the premarket for US stocks, the major indices are trading higher:
- Dow industrial average is up 120 points after Friday's 179.08 point rise
- S&P index is up 11.1 points after Friday's 33.6 point rise
- NASDAQ index is up 35 points after Friday's 156.68 point rise
In the European equity markets, the major indices are mostly higher with the exception of the UK FTSE 100. The German and France stock markets closed at record levels on Friday. In the US debt market
- German Dax +0.15%
- France's CAC +0.45%
- UK's FTSE 100 -0.16%
- Spain's Ibex +0.12%
- Italy's FTSE MIB +0.22%
In the US debt market, the yields are trading lower.
In Europe, the benchmark 10 year yields are also traded to the downside:
