Daily Summary: Wall Street Extends Bullish Momentum, Quarterly Results and PCE data 💥

Today, the main indices on Wall Street are gaining on a wave of optimism following a lower PCE inflation reading and the continuation of good quarterly results from companies. 

PCE inflation fell to 3% year-on-year in June, below market expectations of 3.1% and down from 3.8% in May. The core PCE price index, preferred by the FED, also fell to 4.1% year-on-year, below the market forecast of 4.2% and down from 4.6% in May. 

The University of Michigan (UoM) report showed that consumer sentiment in July was revised slightly downwards. Consumer sentiment in July (final) was 71.6, and the first preliminary reading was 72.6. 

From the UoM report, the 12-month inflation forecast was 3.4% vs the first reading of 3.3% (forecast: 3.4%), and the 5-year inflation forecast was 3% vs the first reading of 3% (forecast: 3.1%). 

In Europe itself, investors mainly reacted to the reading of the dynamics of German harmonized inflation for June, which fell to 6.5% with an expectation of 6.6% and a previous reading of 6.8%.

he German DAX rose to new historical highs before the close of the session in Europe.

On Wall Street, investors' attention turned to Intel, one of the key companies in the processor, integrated circuits, and semiconductor industry. The company presented a very good quarterly report, which raised the company's shares by over 7% during today's trading, increasing Intel's market capitalization by nearly $10 billion.

The entire chip sector is also reacting to reports from the White House, where President Biden is expected to sign a key law in mid-August banning the export of American technology to China (mainly in the field of AI, semiconductors, and quantum computers). China's response was not long in coming, and the local establishment threatened that any additional embargoes would meet with an adequate retaliation. 

In the FX market, the best performing currencies are currently the British pound and the euro. On the other hand, the biggest losers are the Japanese yen and the Australian dollar. The USDJPY pair returned above the psychological barrier of 140.00. 

Precious metals are clearly gaining, and gold is rising by over 0.75% and is trading close to levels of 1960 dollars per ounce. 

Energy commodities do not show larger deviations in daily terms. 

The beginning of today's session brought relatively good sentiments on the crypto market, where Bitcoin tested resistance levels at 29,500 USD. However, this move was almost completely negated and the cryptocurrency is currently close to yesterday's closing levels.