The JPY is the strongest and the AUD is the weakest as the North American session gets underway. The USD is mostly higher with gains vs all the major currencies with the exception of the JPY. The flows are defensive (risk off) with flights into the safety of the JPY and USD while the commodity currencies are all lower.
- The UK yesterday took a step toward more stricter social distancing by encouraging work from home. Mask mandates in public spaces was enacted last week.
- China Evergrande had its first formal default. Kaisa (another developer) also missed a debt payment
- WHO said they needed 2-3 more weeks to analyze the omicron virus.
The US stocks are marginally lower after the major indices closed higher for the 3rd consecutive day this week. The S&P closed within points of the all time high close. The Nasdaq got within 1.7% of its all time closing level, but futures are pushing those indices farther away in pre-market trading.
Crude oil is lower on the day. The US is rattling saber about increased sanctions on Iran.
Gold is lower as well.
US yields are lower as well after another rise yesterday. Today the US treasury will auction off 30 year bonds after the 3 and 10 year auctions were met with average demand.
The US initial claims will be released at 8:30 AM ET/1230 GMT(218K est vs 222K last week). Wholesale inventories (final) will be released at 10 AM ET (est 2.2% unchanged from preliminary). Tomorrow in the US, the CPI will be released with another large increase (0.7%) is expected (last month +0.9%). The Fed has thrown in the towel on transitory inflation last week but it is hard to see these numbers each month.
In other markets the snapshot is specifically showing:
- Spot gold is trading down $5.33 or -0.30% $1777.30
- Spot silver is down $0.21 or -0.95% at $22.20
- WTI crude oil futures are trading at $71.46 after settling at $72.36 yesterday
- Bitcoin is trading at $49,445. The 5 PM ET price was around $50,668 yesterday
In the premarket for US stocks, the major indices are lower after each of the major three indices closed higher for the third consecutive day:
- Dow industrial average is trading down 95 points after yesterday's gain of 35.32 points
- S&P index is down -13.5 points after yesterday's 14.46 point gain
- NASDAQ index is trading down 53 points after yesterday's 100.07 point gain
In the European equity markets, power from the Italy MIB, the major indices are down for the second consecutive day:
- German DAX, -0.27%
- France's CAC, -0.2%
- UK's FTSE 100 -0.3%
- Spain's Ibex -0.6%
- Italy's FTSE MIB +0.15%
In the US debt market, the yields are lower after another run higher in trading yesterday. The U.S. Treasury will auction of 30 year bonds at 1 PM ET.
In the European debt market, the benchmark 10 year yields are all trading lower with UK yields leading the way up -6.5 basis points as omicron social distancing measures are set to be restarted.
