Stocks advance ahead of Fed meeting minutes - 21.8.2024

The Dollar weakening 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 0.5% lower on Tuesday.

Both EUR/USD and GBP/USD continued their climbing yesterday as the federal statistics office Destatis data showed Germany’s producer price index fell in July. Both Pound and euro are lower against the dollar currently. USD/JPY continued its sliding while AUD/USD slowed its advancing on Tuesday with the yen lower against the Greenback currently and Australian dollar steady.

Futures on three main US stock indexes are up currently with the yield on benchmark 10-year US notes down at 3.81%. Stock indexes ended lower on Tuesday as three main stock benchmarks recorded daily losses in a narrow range from -0.33% to -0.15%.

European stock indexes are rising currently after closing down on Tuesday with oil and gas shares leading losses. Asian indexes futures are mostly rising today with Japan’s Nikkei leading gains while data showed Japan’s exports grew less than expected in July whereas imports accelerated.

Brent is falling currently. Prices ended lower third session in a row yesterday as Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) member Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, said crude exports fell to 6.047 million barrels per day (bpd) in June from 6.118 million bpd in May. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) will release its US inventory data at 18:30 CET today. The US oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell 0.4% and is lower currently. Brent lost 0.6% to $77.20 a barrel on Tuesday.