Markets mixed after US tech shares slump - 21.7.2023

The Dollar strengthening is intact 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, gained 0.6% 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 declined.

Both GBP/USD and EUR/USD continued their retreating on Thursday while federal statistics office Destatis report showed the rate of change of German producer prices of industrial products at 0.1% in June was the smallest year-on-year change in producer prices recorded since December 2020. USD/JPY slowed its advancing while AUD/USD reversed its sliding yesterday with both the yen and the Australian dollar lower against the Greenback currently.

US stock indexes futures are up currently as the yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes ticked up to 3.855%. The three main stock benchmarks ended mixed on Thursday in the range of -2.1% to 0.47% as SP 500 and Nasdaq were dragged down by drops in Tesla and Netflix following their disappointing quarterly results.

European stock indexes are mixed currently after closing higher on Thursday with mining shares leading gains. Asian stock indexes futures are mostly higher today with Japan’s Nikkei leading gains while some new measures released by Beijing aimed at helping Chinese auto and electronics consumption failed to impress investors.

Brent is advancing currently. Prices ended higher yesterday as Chinese government data showed China's imports of crude oil from Russia hit an all-time high in June. Prices fell yesterday despite International Energy Agency (IEA) data showing US crude oil inventories fell less than analysts expected. The US oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) added 0.4% and is higher currently. Brent crude rose 0.2% to $79.64 a barrel on Thursday.