Equities down ahead of US inflation data - 13.2.2024

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 0.1% higher on Monday.

Both EUR/USD and GBP/USD reversed their climbing on Monday. Both Pound and euro are higher against the dollar currently. USD/JPY ended little changed and AUD/USD slowed its advancing yesterday with both the yen and Australian dollar lower against the Greenback currently.

Futures on three main US stock indexes are mixed currently with the yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury up at 4.179%. US markets closed mixed on Monday with the three main stock benchmarks recording daily returns in the range from -0.3% to 0.3% as investors await for US January inflation data for hints about Federal Reserve’s likely actions after many policymakers said they need more evidence on a sustainable downtrend in inflation to warrant lower rates.

European stock indexes futures are down currently after closing higher on Monday led by retail shares. Asian indexes futures are mostly lower today with Japan’s Nikkei index defying the trend after positive earnings from chipmaker Tokyo Electron Ltd. and investment house SoftBank Group Corp.

Brent is edging up currently. Prices ended mixed yesterday while the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicted oil demand will peak by 2030. US West Texas Intermediate WTI rose 0.1% and is higher currently. Brent slipped 0.2% to $82.00 a barrel on Monday.