The USD is mostly higher
As the North American traders enter for the day, the JPY is the strongest and the NZD is the weakest. The USD is mostly higher but off the session highs vs most currencies.
Today the Federal Reserve starts its two day meeting with the decision tomorrow at 2 PM ET. The expectation is no change but the question is will the Fed start to pave a more solid road to taper or will the story continue to be more of work in progress toward even talking about a schedule. Most expect the Fed to hold off on paving a more solid road with the risk of the Delta virus still looming.
Today is a monster day for earnings (the first of 3 this week). The list of major earnings today includes:
- Alphabet
- Apple
- AMD
- Stryker
- Starbucks
- Microsoft
- Corning
- Xerox
The preliminary durable goods report for June will be released at the bottom of the hour with expectations of 2.1% for the headline number and +0.8% four the court durable goods number. The number can be in volatile. Later at 9 AM, the S&P/Case Shiller Home price data will be be released with the year on year number to show a 16.1% gain versus 14.9% last month. That 10 AM ET, the consumer confidence number and Richmond Fed manufacturing index will both be released.
In other markets:
- Spot gold remains around the $1800 level. It is currently trading at $1800.56 up $3.67 or 0.22%.
- Spot silver is down one center -0.01% at $25.19
- WTI crude oil futures are trading down $0.33 -0.46% at $71.85
- The price of bitcoin is trading at $37,889.84 that's up about $600 or 1.61%
In the US stock market, the major indices all closed at record levels again yesterday (for the 2nd consecutive day for all). The major indices also extended the winning streak to 5 consecutive days. Today, the major indices are mixed, with the NASDAQ index modestly higher. The Dow industrial average is lower.
- Dow -85.31 points
- S&P -7.5 points
- the NASDAQ index is up 4 point
in the European market, the major indices are trading lower:
- German DAX, -0.44%
- France's CAC, -0.25%
- UK's FTSE 100, -0.38%
- Spain's Ibex, -1.0%
- Italy's FTSE MIB, -0.61%
in the AsianMarket, Chinese stocks continue to move to the downside as a whining regulatory clampdown on technology companies scares investors.
- Hang Seng index fell -4.4% with its technology index falling -6.7% lowest level in over a year
- China's A50 index fell -4.0%
- Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 fell-3.5%
The offshore yuan also fell on the back of the sharp declines.
In the US debt market, the yields are opening lower on the day with the 10 year yield hanging around 1.25%
Coffee futures traded to a seven year high overnight after Brazilian cold-weather has hurt the coffee crop. There are estimates of a crop damage of up to 9 million bags. That is up sharply from last week's 3 million.
