The USD is stronger but major pairs are fairly scrunched together ahead of Powell
As the North American session begins the NZD is the strongest and the GBP is the weakest. The USD is mostly stronger with modest gains of 0.15% to 0.22% vs all the majors with the exception of the NZD (down -0.01%). Fed Powell will be testifying on Capitol Hill today and the market seems content to wait and see. Existing home sales will be released at 10 AM along with the Richmond Fed manufacturing index. Powell does not testify until 2 PM. Fed's Mester and Daly will speak at 10:30 AM and 11 AM ET respectively.
The ranges and changes are showing the dollar off the highs. The GBPUSD (and GBP pairs) have seen the biggest rebound, after spending most of the day in the red (it still is but well off lows). The JPY pairs are also off lows and trading closer to the highs to start the NY session.
In other markets:
- Spot gold is trading down $0.42 or -0.02% at $1782.97
- Spot silver is unchanged at $25.95
- WTI crude oil is down $0.64 a -0.87% at $73.02. The August contract is $-0.53 or -0.72% at $72.59
- Bitcoin is continuing its move down and trades down $2020 or -6.3% at $30,534. The low price reached $30,402 toward the high price was up at $33,261
In the premarket for US stocks, the major indices are marginally higher after strong issue gains yesterday. The Dow industrial average rose nearly 600 points. The NASDAQ index was up 111 points
- Dow is up 37 point after yesterday's 586 29 point rally
- S&P is up 6 points after yesterday's 58.34 point rise
- NASDAQ index up 43 points after yesterday's 111.10 point rally yesterday
In the European equity markets, the major indices are trading mixed
- German DAX, +0.16%
- France's CAC, +0.1%
- UK's FTSE 100, +0.35%
- Spain's Ibex, -0.3%
- Italy's FTSE MIB -0.2%
In the US debt market, the yields are mixed with the shorter end lower and the 30 year yield up modestly. The 10 year yield is trading unchanged at 1.489%.
In the European debt market, the benchmark 10 year yields are mostly lower with the UK yield modest rise of 0.2% the only gainer on the day. The France yield fall is the largest at -1.3 basis points.
