Equities waver after Wall Street advance stalled - 25.4.2024

The Dollar strengthening has halted currently. The live dollar index data show the ICE US Dollar index, a measure of the dollar’s strength against a basket of six rival currencies, added 0.2% on Wednesday.

GBP/USD slowed its advancing yesterday while EUR/USD reversed its climbing as the president of Germany’s Bundesbank said that he would support a rate cut by European Central Bank in June if upcoming economic data increases the ECB’s confidence that inflation would soon return back to the 2% target. Both euro and Pound are higher against the dollar currently. USD/JPY accelerated its advancing while AUD/USD slowed its climbing on Wednesday with the yen lower against the Greenback currently and the Australian dollar higher still.

The US stock index futures are lower currently ahead of US Unemployment Claims report due at 14:30 CET today. The three main US stock indexes ended mixed on Wednesday in a narrow range from -0.1% to 0.1% on mixed corporate earnings.

European stock indexes futures are mixed currently after indexes closed lower yesterday with tech shares leading gains. Asian stock indexes futures are mixed today with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index leading gains while tech shares retreated following disappointing guidance from social media giant Meta Platforms whereas Australian markets were closed for a holiday.

Brent is retracing up presently. Prices ended lower yesterday as the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported US crude stockpiles fell unexpectedly 6.4 million barrels last week to 453.6 million barrels due to very high crude exports. The US oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures lost 0.66% but is higher currently. Brent crude fell 0.45% to $88.02 a barrel on Wednesday.