Stocks venture up ahead of Fed decision - 18.6.2025

The Dollar strengthening has reversed 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, rallied 0.7% on Tuesday.

Both EUR/USD and GBP/USD reversed their climbing yesterday despite the US and Britain signing an agreement on the sidelines of the G7 summit on Monday that lowered some tariffs on British exports to the United States with a tariff rate specifically for British steel and aluminum to be established “at a future time.” USD/JPY accelerated its advancing while AUD/USD reversed its climbing on Tuesday with both the yen and Australian dollar higher against the Greenback currently.

Futures on three main US stock indexes are up currently ahead of Federal Reserve decision at 20:00 CET where it is widely expected policymakers will keep interest rates unchanged and update forecasts. Stock indexes ended lower on Tuesday recording daily losses in the range from -0.9% to -0.7% while the Census Bureau reported US retail sales fell more than expected in May.

European stock indexes futures are rising currently after closing lower on Tuesday. Asian indexes futures are mostly rising today with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index defying the trend while data showed that Japan’s exports fell for the first time in May after eight consecutive months of growth.

Brent is down currently. Prices surged more than 4% yesterday as the exchange of airstrikes between Israel and Iran continued and Iran partially suspended gas production at the South Pars field it shares with Qatar after an Israeli strike started a fire there on Saturday . The Energy Information Administration (EIA) will release its US crude oil inventory data at 16:30 CET today. The US oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose 4.3% but is lower currently. Brent rallied 4.4% to $76.45 a barrel on Tuesday.