Equities mixed after US stocks posted marginal gains - 24.4.2023

The Dollar strengthening has resumed 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, slipped 0.1% Friday.

Both EUR/USD and GBP/USD continued their climbing on Friday while the SP Global reported German and British priva5te sector activities expanded in April. Euro and Pound are lower against the Dollar currently. USD/JPY slowed its retreating while AUD/USD reversed its climbing Friday with the yen and the Australian dollar lower against the Greenback currently.

US stocks indexes futures are lower currently after closing marginally higher Friday following SP Global data showing US business activity accelerated to an 11-month high in April. The three main US stock benchmarks recorded daily gains in the narrow range from 0.07% to 0.11% on Friday.

Futures on European stock indexes are down today after closing fractionally higher on Friday led by health care shares. Asian stock indexes futures are mostly retreating today with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index leading losses.

Brent is edging lower currently. Oil prices ended higher on Friday last week supported by Purchasing Managers surveys data showing private sector activities expanded both in Europe and US in April. The US oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) added 0.6% but is lower currently. Brent crude edged up 0.7% to $81.66 a barrel on Friday. Both benchmarks however lost more than 5% last week.