Markets mixed after Wall Street dip - 25.9.2023

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, ended 0.2% higher on Friday.

Both EUR/USD and GBP/USD speeded up their retreating on Friday while flash euro are PMI data showed euro zone private business activity contraction continued in September. Euro is lower against the Dollar currently and Pound is little changed. Both USD/JPY and AUD/USD reversed their sliding on Friday with both the yen and the Australian dollar lower against the Greenback currently.

US stocks indexes futures are up currently after closing marginally lower on Friday. The three main US stock benchmarks recorded daily losses in the narrow range from -0.3% to -0.1% on Friday as the SP Global flash PMI repot indicated a stagnation in activity across the private US sector as PMI Composite Index ticked down to 50.1 in September from 50.2 in August.

European stock indexes futures are mixed currently after closing marginally lower on Friday led by construction and material stocks. Asian stock indexes futures are mixed today with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index leading losses as China Evergrande shares tumbled almost 25% following the giant real estate developer’s announcement it will be unable to issue new debt due to an ongoing government investigation into its unit Hengda Real Estate Group.

Brent is edging up currently. Oil prices ended mixed on Friday as Russia's Transneft suspended deliveries of diesel to the key Baltic and Black Sea terminals of Primorsk and Novorossiysk. The energy services firm Baker Hughes reported the total count of active US oil rigs fell by eight to 507, their lowest since February 2022. The US oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose 0.5 % and is higher currently. Brent lost 3cents to $93.27 a barrel on Friday. Brent and WTI lost about 0.3% and 0.03% for the week respectively.