- Yesterday's session in US markets saw moderate gains in most stock indices. The Nasdaq gained 0.27%, the S&P500 added 0.1% and the Russell 2000 more than 0.59%.
- Futures point to a slightly higher opening of today's session in Europe and on Wall Street.
- Japan's Nikkei soared to new historic highs today, adding more than 2% intraday. At the same time, the USDJPY pair is testing an important barrier at the 161,000 level.
- Australian consumer confidence fell to its second lowest reading of the year. The Westpac confidence index (July) fell: 1.1% to 82.7 (previously +1.7% to 83.6)
- Over the next few days, the Bank of Japan will hold in-person meetings with JGB market participants: banks, securities firms and bond buyers for financial institutions.
- The meetings are aimed at determining a realistic pace of reduction in Japanese government bond purchases. The bank will announce the reduction plan after its next meeting, which will be held on July 30 and 31.
- The highlight of the day in today's session may be Powell's semi-annual testimony. We often get the text of his prepared remarks published on the Fed's website before his testimony, so it is worth keeping a close eye on incoming macro information.
- The dollar is rising against most major currencies as investors wait to see how hawkish Fed Chairman Powell will be in his semi-annual testimony before Congress.
- S&P 500 - Oppenheimer raised its year-end target to 5900 points from 5500 points.
- On the other hand, however, Morgan Stanley's Wilson says a 10% drop in the S&P 500 before the US election is "highly likely
- Deutsche Bank says Trump's presidency + Chinese tariffs could lead to parity on the EUR/USD pair
- In the commodities market, we are seeing a pullback in Brent and WTI crude oil. However, their scale is not large. On the other hand, precious metals are attracting slightly more attention, where we are seeing sizable gains. Gold is currently adding 0.3%, silver 0.7%, and palladium 0.9%.
- The cryptocurrency market continues to rebound after a wave of sell-offs that was initiated last week. Bitcoin is adding 1.12% this morning, while Ethereum is up 1.3%.
Heatmap of FX market volatility observed at the moment. Source:xStation
