Despite gains in the first half of the European session most of the major stock benchmarks from the region finished today’s trading with minor drop. The steeper declines could be observed on Portuguese and Italian bourses as well as on the Russian stock market. The Polish WIG20 was the only blue chip index from the Old Continent to advance significantly as it closed with almost 1.2% gain.
The beginning of the US session brought declines of the major stock indices. All three main stock benchmarks from Wall Street are trading lower at press time with S&P 500 sitting around 25 pts below the ATH. Dow Jones is taking the biggest step back as it is declining around 0.35% while Nasdaq and S&P 500 are subject to around 0.15% drop.
On the FX front the US dollar is the strongest out of majors followed by the euro and Swiss franc. On the other side of the table we have Antipodean currencies that are subject to biggest declines. Quite a steep decline can be observed among emerging market currencies after Donald Trump communicated via Twitter that the US authorities will examine the land reform in South Africa that is said to discriminate white-skinned farmers. The South African rand is trading over 1% lower against the US dollar at press time.
Commodities are trading broadly lower on the back of the USD strengthening. Lead, zinc and aluminium can be found among few metals resisting downward pressure. Biggest declines are observed on the precious metals market with platinum price dropping as much as 2% at press time.
