- The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index for May beat economists' forecasts and rose to 102 (vs. April's value: 97 and forecasts: 96). Also improving was the Expectations Index, which rose to 74.6 (vs. 68 in April), which shows consumer attitudes toward the future in the short term. Despite the improvement, the value remained below 80 for the fourth consecutive month, which is often interpreted as a pro-recession signal.
- Contracts for the U.S. dollar index have been recording a slight rebound over the past few hours. Not only a solid Conference Board index but also statements from the Fed's Kashkarki supported the 'greenback' today.
- Kashkarki suggested that rate hikes cannot be 'taken off the table' at this stage, and that actual monetary policy may not be restrictive enough. As a result, the Minneapolis Fed chairman expects a maximum of two Fed rate cuts, over the horizon of the next few quarters - if inflation data perform encouragingly
- The quotations of U.S. indices today during the session recovered the losses started after the opening. The S&P 500 index is trading near the previous session's closing price, the Nasdaq 100 is up 0.4%, and the Dow Jones is losing 0.9% today. Rising 10 year treasuries yields above 4.5% pressured Wall Street
- Nvidia is up more than 6% today after news of the company's planned use of processors by startup Elon Musk. xAI intends to create a supercomputer based on the company's H100 processors by 2025, one of whose tasks will be to train and coach Musk's AI model. Today, Nvidia market capitalization is almost $2.8 trillion vs $3.2 trillion Microsofts' market cap
- European indexes recorded stronger corrections today. The DAX is down 0.5%, France's CAC 40 is losing almost 1%, and Britain's FTSE 100 is down 0.76%. The index monitoring the health of the European stock market, the Stoxx Europe 600, fell 0.6% today.
- U.S. bond yields also rose dramatically today, breaking through the 4.53% level. This makes them their highest value since February of this year.
- Cocoa futures prices are up more than 6% today. The regulator from Ghana, the second-largest producer of the commodity, has indicated an early hedging of supplies for the 2024/2025 season on the spot market, in the face of declining production, and plans to raise $1.5 billion in loans for this purpose.
- Not only cocoa, but also coffee futures are trading up more than 5% today in the face of drought in Brazil and Vietnam complicating the supply picture, with high demand also seen in China
- Cryptocurrency prices fell again today. Bitcoin is trading near $67,500, as the market reacted with a sell-off on news of a potential payoff of Mt.Gox exchange users
- Semler Scientific's shares are gaining nearly 30% today after the medical technology company decided to invest surplus capital of $40 million in Bitcoin.
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