New Covid strains send stocks lower
As the North American session begins, the USD is the strongest, the GBP is the weakest. Brexit negotiation continue, a new Covid strain closing the US border has the GBP down sharply. In the US, there is a new Covid deal from lawmakers finally, but fears of a new Covid strain as the vaccine process is just beginning, political unrest as the Georgia election lies ahead and a transition from Trump to Biden continues to paint for a rocky road ahead. Nevertheless, despite lower stocks in the premarket (just following the Euro shares) the dollar has a safe haven bid.
The ranges and changes are showing volatile market conditions with the GBP pairs suffering the most. Nevertheless they are off there low levels. The USD is vs all the major indices but is also off the highest levels as the greenback bounces.
In other markets:
- Spot gold is trading down -$8.10 or -0.42% at $1873.50
- Spot silver is trading near unchanged at $25.84
- WTI crude oil futures down $-2.05 or -4.18% to $47.05
- Bitcoin on Coinbase is trading down $785-at $22,595. Over the weekend, the new all time high reached $24,300 before coming off in trading today
IN the premarket for US stocks, the futures are implying sharply lower levels
- Dow, is down $-445. The Dow fell -124 points from Friday
- NASDAQ index -180 points. The NASDAQ index fell 9.1 point on Friday
- S&P index, down -65 points. The S&P index fell -13 points on Friday
In the European equity markets, the major indices are also sharply lower on orders closing and new coronavirus strands (and no Brexit deal as well).
- German DAX, -3.21%
- France's CAC, -2.61%
- UK's FTSE 100, -2.19%
- Spain's Ibex, -3.25%
- Italy's FTSE MIB, -2.69%
In the US debt market, yields are trading near lower with a flatter yield curve on safe haven flows and expectations are slower growth:
In the European debt market, the benchmark 10 year yields are also lower across the board.
