As the North American session begins, the NZD is the strongest of the major currencies while the USD is the weakest. All the major currency pairs vs the USD are working on their third consecutive day to the downside ((the USDCHF eked out a small gain yesterday). The dollar moved lower in the European session on reports that the ECB are looking at a 50 basis point hike this week to launch their rate hikes (sources report). That helped to propel other currencies as well. Today the final CPI in the EU showed an 8.6% gain YoY with the ex food and energy up 4.6% (vs 4.4% last month).
The fall in the dollar may be helping to boost stocks in the US in pre-market trading.. Yesterday, the stocks were up in pre-market trading but lost those gains after talks that Apple would slow hiring and ask budget cuts. We will see if the gains are held in trading today. US yields are marginally higher. Gold is higher and crude oil has retraced to be some of the strong gains yesterday which saw the price move up over $5.
A look at the markets currently shows:
- spot gold is trading up $4.59 or 0.28% at $1713.75
- spot silver is up $0.12 or 0.65% at $18.80
- WTI crude oil futures are down $-1.59 or -1.55% at $101.01. Natural gas is down $0.18 and $7.29
- The price bitcoin is trading at $22,029 that's marginally lower on the day but still above its $20,000 level.
In the premarket for US stocks, the major indices are trading higher:
- Dow industrial average up 175 points. Yesterday the Dow fell -215.64
- S&P index up 28 points. Yesterday the S&P fell -32.31 points
- NASDAQ up 98 points. Yesterday the NASDAQ fell -92.37 points
In the European equity markets, the major indices are mixed
- German DAX up 17.55 points or 0.14%
- France's CAC down 3.33 points or -0.05%
- UK's FTSE 100 up 24.44 points or 0.14%
- Spain's Ibex up 94.3 points or +1.18%
- Italy's FTSE MIB +80 points or +0.35%
In the US debt market, yields are marginally higher. The 2 – 10 year spread has lost some of its negative spread. Last week the spread traded as negative at -26 basis points. Currently the 2 – 10 year spread is at 18.4 basis points still negative (and still pointing toward a recession) but off the most negative levels seen lately:
In the European debt market, the benchmark 10 year yields are trading mixed.
