Morning wrap (02.08.2021)

• Stocks in Asia launched a new week higher. Nikkei gains 1.8%, S&P/ASX 200 adds 1.3% while Kospi trades 0.6% higher. Indices from China gain over 1%

• DAX futures point to a higher opening of the European session

• United States and United Kingdom blame Iran for an attack on Israeli tanker off the coast of Oman last week

• According to the Telegraph report, United Kingdom will offer booster vaccine shots to 32 million people in September

• An infrastructure deal worth $1 trillion has been introduced to the US Senate and may be voted on in the later part of the week

• Chinese manufacturing PMI dropped from 50.9 to 50.4 pts in July (exp. 50.8). Non-manufacturing index dropped from 53.5 to 53.3 pts (exp. 53.4)

• China decided to ban travel between some regions of the country amid rising coronavirus case count

• Precious metals trade mixed - gold drops, silver trade flat while palladium and platinum gain

• Oil and agricultural commodities pull back. Industrial metals gain

• Bitcoin trades near $39,500 mark

• AUD and GBP are the best performing major currencies while NZD and JPY lag the most

GBPJPY made a failed attempt to break above the 153.40 resistance zone last week. Pair pulled back and the downtrend structure looks to remain intact. However, the downward move was halted at the start of this week at 152.20 zone. Source: xStation5