Stocks mixed after weak Japanese data - 8.9.2023

The Dollar strengthening has halted 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, gained 0.2% on Thursday while the Department of Labor data showed the number of Americans who sought unemployment benefits over the last week was lower than the forecast while their number fell.

Both EUR/USD and GBP/USD continued their sliding on Thursday while Eurostat downgraded the preliminary estimate of euro zone’s economic growth rate. Both euro and Pound are higher against the dollar currently. Both USD/JPY and AUD/USD reversed their climbing yesterday with the yen lower against the Greenback currently and the Australian dollar higher.

US stock indexes futures are up currently as the yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes ticked down to 4.224%. The three main stock benchmarks ended mixed on Thursday in the range of -0.9% to 0.17% as the head of Federal Reserve Bank of New York John William said while inflation has been “moving in the right direction,” policymakers have not ruled out additional hikes.

European stock indexes are higher currently after closing marginally lower on Thursday led by mining stocks. Asian stock indexes futures are mostly lower today with Japan’s Nikkei leading losses while trading in Hong Kong was suspended due to severe rainfall and flooding in the wake of Typhoon Haikui.

Brent is little changed presently. Prices ended lower yesterday first time in ten sessions despite data showing US crude oil stockpiles fell by 6.3 million barrels last week, the fourth consecutive weekly drop and down over 6% in the last month. The US oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) lost 0.8% and is steady currently. Brent slid 0.8% to $89.92 a barrel on Thursday.