The major indices are little changed
Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays.
The heart is beating but it might be a slow steady beat today as the Christmas/Holiday season falls on us. Nevertheless, if I were to give a rank to the major currencies, the GBP is the strongest and the CAD is the weakest. The USD is mixed and in the middle.
Anything on tap today in the US?
- The US treasury will auction off 5 year notes (sorry bond dealers but the US government has to pay their bills) at an earlier 10 AM ET/1500 GMT.
- The Richmond Fed is also not giving their workers an early break. They will announce their manufacturing index for the month of December at 10 AM ET with the expectation of 1 vs -1 last month.
- Geopolitically, in Hong Kong there are reports that police are firing tear gas on protesters.
The ranges and changes (see chart above) are showing very modest changes in the major pairs with the GBPUSD leading the wy for the majors against the US at 41 pips. The others are all less than 26 pips. All pairs are well below their 22 day averages as one might expect.
In other markets a snapshot is showing:
- spot gold is up $4.90 or 0.33% at $1490.65
- WTI crude oil futures are up $0.21 or 0.35% at $60.73
In the pre-market for the US equity markets futures are implying a higher opening. The US stock markets will stay open until 1 PM today. It is traditionally the start of the so called Santa Claus rally that runs through the 2nd day of the New Year.
- S&P is up 2 points
- Dow is up 28 points
- Nasdaq is up 6.5 points
In the Eurorpean equity markets, markets are mixed/little changed
- German DAX, -0.13%
- France's CAC, unchanged
- UK's FTSE 100, +0.1%
- Spain's Ibex, -0.12%
- Italy's FTSE MIB, -0.4%
In the US debt market, yields are mostly higher with a modestly flatter yield curve:
