- Trading on Wall Street today is halted, due to the Independence Day holiday in the United States. However, trading on Wall Street indices futures is open
- U.S. indices closed the session at new record levels yesterday; Tesla continued its rally and added another 7%, and in the second part of the session Nvidia 'joined' the gains by posting a more than 4% rebound and supporting gains among other chipmakers
- The FOMC minutes from the Fed's June meeting indicated that bankers see the U.S. economy gradually slowing, but still need more data to gain confidence to cut interest rates without risking a rebound in inflation. Bankers signalled that weakness in the labour market at this point in the cycle could cause unemployment to rise more rapidly than it has historically done
- Against this backdrop, the Fed minutes may have been received partly dovishly, as ISM services data unexpectedly fell yesterday to the lowest since May 2020, raising hopes for a faster US rate cut this fall. Yields on 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds fell more than 7 basis points, and the dollar index slipped after the ISM release
- The wave of gains from Wall Street carried over into the Asian session, and this one - except China - went on in a mostly upbeat mood. Semiconductor manufacturers did particularly well; Taiwan's TSE closed the session at nearly 1.3% plus
- China's Hang Seng and CSI indices closed the session under the dash and clearly 'lagged behind' Japan's Nikkei and Topix, which gained nearly 0.9%, or Australia's ASX, which recorded nearly 1.2% driven by gains in industrial metals and mining companies. India's Sensex reached new record price levels yesterday,
- EURUSD erased some of yesterday's gains and retreated from levels of 1.081 to 1.0785 today; investors are waiting for the ECB meeting minutes (12:30 PM BST), which could raise volatility on the Eurodollar today
- The mood of the cryptocurrency market is consistently weak; Bitcoin is trading down more than 2% and slipping below $59,000. All major 'altcoins' are deepening declines. Ethereum saw virtually no reaction, despite reports of a possible 'launch' of spot ETFs in mid-July; the price of the second-largest cryptocurrency is settling around $3200; still nearly 50% below the historical maxima of 2021
- Hong Kong's S&P PMI for June indicated at 48.2 vs. 49.2 previously
- USDJPY dropped yesterday from almost 162 levels to 160.7, as US dollar weakened, but pair recovered some losses.
- According to the Reuters economic survey conducted from June 25 to July 1, the Bank of Japan is expected to reduce its monthly bond purchases by roughly $100 billion (16.00 trillion yen) in the first year under a quantitative tightening (QT) plan set for release this month.
- The pace would bring the monthly bond purchases to approximately 4.65 trillion yen, down from the current 6 trillion. In the second year, survey respondents anticipate further reductions, with monthly purchases averaging around 3.55 trillion yen
- Trading in US agriculture, soft commodities is halted today, due to a national holiday on U.S. exchanges (CBOT). However, futures on energy commodities as well as the precious and industrial metals are open
