Retail sales highlights the economic releases as traders prepare for the Friday trade
The JPY is the strongest while the NZD is the weakest as a "risk off" sentiment (PMI manufacturing data was lower in NZ as well) prevails in the market at the start of the NY session. Stocks are lower as Broadcom disappointed and spoke of China risk (Nasdaq stocks taking the most heat). China Industrial production was weak, but retail sales were better. US retail sales will be released at 8:30 AM ET. Industrial Production/Cap. Utilization will be released at 9:15 AM ET. and Univ of Michigan sentiment will come out at 10 AM ET. It is also Friday which can bring about it's own ups and downs as traders square up/tighten up positions for fear of weekend event risk. Tensions in middle east and Trump tweets can be risk event issues.
The ranges and changes are showing larger activity in the GBP pairs, but pairs like the USDJPY, USDCAD, AUDUSD are lagging with low to high trading ranges of 26 pips or less. The JPY cross pairs are all trading lower and near the lows for the day. GBPJPY is down by -55 pips while NZDJPY is lower by -50 pips.
A snapshot of the markets are showing:
- spot gold is a $11.67 or 0.87% or $1354
- WTI crude oil futures are down $.15 or -0.29% at $52.14
- Bitcoino on Coinbase is currently trading up $24.46 at $8287.63
In the pre-market for US stocks, the futures are implying a lower opening led by declines in the Nasdaq index:
- Dow, -39 points
- S&P, -6 points
- Nasdaq, -41 points
In European markets, shares are mostly lower:
- German DAX, -0.8%
- France's CAC, -0.4%
- UK's FTSE, -0.5%
- Spain Ibex, -0.6%
- Italy's FTSE MIB, -0.3%
In the US debt market yields are lower by 2 to 3 basis points:
European benchmark 10 year yields are also lower with the German yield down -2.1 bps at -0.262% - the lowest yields on record.
