Markets Mixed Amid Cautious Trades - 14.6.2024

The Dollar strengthening is intact today. 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, ended 0.5% higher on Thursday.

Both EUR/USD and GBP/USD reversed advancing on Thursday while Eurostat reported euro area industrial production declined unexpectedly in April. Both euro and Pound are lower against the dollar currently. USD/JPY reversed its sliding while AUD/USD reversed its climbing yesterday with both the yen and the Australian dollar lower against the Greenback currently as the Bank of Japan kept interest rates steady while it announced no near-term changes to its bond buying program.

US stock index futures are mixed with the yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes up at 4.269%. The three main stock benchmarks ended mixed on Thursday with daily returns in the range of -0.2% to 0.3% as SP 500 and Nasdaq closed at records for four straight sessions while Department of Labor data showed 242 thousand Americans sought unemployment benefits over the last week, up from 229 thousand the previous week.

European indexes futures are mixed today after stock indexes closed down on Thursday with auto shares leading losses. Asian stock indexes futures are mostly lower today with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng leading losses weighed by fears of retaliatory measures after European Union introduced new tariffs against China’s major electric vehicle makers.

Brent is edging up currently. Prices ended lower on Thursday on demand concerns after a surprise build in US crude inventories. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures ended 0.2% lower but are higher currently. Brent futures slid 0.4% to $82.27 a barrel on Thursday.