Stock markets under pressure as risk aversion persists - 20.8.2021

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, rose 0.5% after the US Labor Department report 348 thousand Americans sought unemployment benefits over the last week, down from 375 thousand the previous week.

GBP/USD joined EUR/USD’s continued sliding despite the European Central Bank report euro-zone current account surplus rose to 21.8 billion euro in June from 13.9 billion in May, when a decline to 12.3 billion was expected. Euro is higher against the Dollar currently while Pound is lower still. USD/JPY joined AUD/USD accelerated sliding yesterday with yen higher against the Greenback currently while the Australian dollar is lower still.

Futures on three main US stock indexes are down currently with US 10-year Treasury note yields slipping to 1.238%. The three main US stock benchmarks ended mixed Thursday after better employment data showing Americans filed fewer than expected new unemployment claims, recording daily returns in the range of -0.19% to +0.13%.

European stock indexes are lower currently after closing down Thursday with miners and retailing shares leading losses. Asian indexes are all in red today with Hang Seng leading losses as China's National People's Congress officially passed a law designed to protect online user data privacy, which is expected to add more compliance requirements for companies in the country.