Equities tumble tracking US bank rout - 10.3.2023

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, slid 0.2% Thursday as the Department of Labor data showed the number of Americans who sought unemployment benefits over the last week was higher than the forecast while their number rose.

EUR/USD joined GBP/USD’s accelerated climbing Thursday. Both euro and Pound are higher against the Dollar currently. USD/JPY reversed its advancing while AUD/USD ended flat yesterday with the yen lower against the Greenback currently and the Australian dollar little changed.

US stock indexes futures are down currently ahead of the nonfarm payrolls report today at 14:30 CET as the yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes ticked down to 3.831%. The three main stock benchmarks recorded sharp losses Thursday in the range of 1.7% to 2.1% as bank shares plunged after the SVB Financial Group, a Silicon Valley-focused financial company, disclosed Wednesday that it lost $1.8 billion following securities sales to raise funds against the background of declining customer deposits.

European stock market futures are lower today after ending down Thursday with mining shares leading losses. Asian stock indexes futures are deep in red with Japan's Nikkei recording smallest loss while the Bank of Japan held interest rates at record lows and signaled no changes in its quantitative easing and yield curve control measures.

Brent is extending losses presently. Prices ended lower on Thursday. The US oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) lost 1.2% and is lower currently. Brent crude fell 1.3% to $81.59 a barrel on Thursday.