Stocks rise ahead of Fed interest rate decision - 31.7.2024

The Dollar weakening is intact 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, ended 0.1% lower on Tuesday.

Both EUR/USD and GBP/USD continued their sliding yesterday despite Eurostat data showing German inflation unexpectedly rose in July. Both euro and Pound are lower against the dollar currently. Both USD/JPY and AUD/USD reversed their advancing on Tuesday with the yen higher against the Greenback currently and Australian dollar lower still after the Bank of Japan raised its interest rates target to 0.25% from zero to 0.1%.

Futures on three main US stock indexes are up currently with the yield on benchmark 10-year US notes down at 4.136%. Stock indexes ended mixed on Tuesday as three main stock benchmarks recorded daily returns in a narrow range from -1.28% to 0.5% as the “rotation” from tech giants to smaller and medium-sized company continued. Federal Reserve decision is due today at 22:00 CET as the US central bank is widely expected to stand pat on rates but indicate rate cuts are on the way.

European stock indexes are rising currently after closing higher on Tuesday with construction and materials shares leading gains. Asian indexes futures are advancing today with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index leading gains against the background of China’s Politburo meeting that stressed the need to boost consumption.

Brent is advancing currently after reports of Hamas chief being killed in Iran. Prices ended over 1% lower yesterday. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) will release its US inventory data at 18:30 CET today. The US oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell 1.4% but is higher currently. Brent lost 1.4% to $78.63 a barrel on Tuesday.