Forex
The strongest weakest of the major currencies

The AUD is the strongest ahead of their interest rate decision which will be release on Tuesday with expectations of a 50 bp hike to 1.85%. The USD is the weakest. Last week the Federal Reserve raised rates by 75 bps as expected.

Over the weekend China PMI came out weaker than expected. The European stock markets have shrugged off the weaker PMI data. The US PMI (Markit) and ISM data will be released at 9:45 AM and 10 AM ET respectively (52.3 expected for both). Construction spending will also be released at 10 AM with expectations of 0.3% vs -0.1% last month. Canada is off in observance of Civic Day.

A look around the markets shows:

  • spot gold is up $6.30 or 0.36% at $1771.69.
  • Spot silver is up $0.11 or 0.52% at $20.42.
  • WTI crude oil is trading down $-3.44 and $95.18
  • The price bitcoin is trading at $23,206. Putting things into perspective bitcoin at around 5 PM on Friday was a hair below the $24,000 level

In the premarket for US stocks, the major indices are trading modestly lower after Friday's gains and stellar month for July:

  • Dow industrial average is down -36 points after Friday's 315.5 point rise
  • S&P index is is down -10.5 points after Friday's 57.86 point rise
  • NASDAQ index is down -22 points after Friday's 228.09 point rise

In the European equity markets the major indices are higher with the exception of the Spain's Ibex

  • German DAX, +0.52%
  • France's CAC +0.39%
  • UK's FTSE 100 +0.5%
  • Spain's Ibex -0.17%
  • Italy's FTSE MIB up 1.59%

In the US debt market yields are little changed:

  • 2 year 2.892%, +0.4 basis points
  • 5 year 2.679% -0.2 basis points
  • 10 year 2.656% +0.2 basis points
  • 30 year 3.023% +1.1 basis point

In the European debt market, the benchmark 10 year yields are mostly lower:

European benchmark yields
European 10 year yields are mostly lower