Stocks down after third straight loss on Wall Street - 18.8.2023

The Dollar strengthening has reversed today. 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, added virtually unchanged on Thursday while the Department of Labor data showed the number of Americans who sought unemployment benefits over the last week was lower than the forecast while their number dipped.

EUR/USD slowed its sliding on Thursday while GBP/USD slowed its advancing while Eurostat reported euro area trade surplus rose in June. USD/JPY reversed its climbing while AUD/USD slowed its sliding with the yen and the Australian dollar higher against the Greenback currently.

US stock indexes futures are down currently as the yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes fell to 4.253%. The three main stock benchmarks ended lower on Thursday in the narrow range of -1.17% to -0.77% as a bigger than expected decline in US weekly jobless claims spurred concerns the Fed may keep interest rates higher for longer.

European stock indexes are retreating currently after closing lower on Thursday with industrial shares leading losses. Asian stock indexes futures are mostly lower today with Japan’s Nikkei defying regional trends while Chinese markets got support from the People’s Bank of China announcement it will continue to pump up liquidity conditions and support slowing economic growth in the country.

Brent is advancing currently as Asian refiners are looking for replacement for Kuwaiti supply as the OPEC producer cut it exports to feed its huge new refinery. Kuwait's crude shipments shrank by about 10% to 1.61 million barrels per day in January-July from the same period in 2022 as its Al Zour refinery ramped up. Prices ended higher yesterday. The US oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose 1.3% and is higher currently. Brent crude gained 0.8% to $84.12 a barrel on Thursday.