Summary:
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Global stock market indices move lower
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Weak domestic data depresses USD and CAD
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Coca-Cola disappoints with earnings
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Energy commodities resist broad downward pressure
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Xi Jinping to meet with US negotiators on Friday
Thursday marked a halt to the ongoing recovery on the global stock markets. Asian indices moved slightly lower over the night. Despite quite an upbeat beginning of the European session, most of the blue chips indices from the Old Continent either finished or are trading significantly below their yesterday’s closing prices. Stocks in Russia underperformed the most while Portuguese PSI20 index produced quite an impressive gain.
Major stock market indices from Wall Street are trading lower since the very beginning of the US session. Moods were spoiled by disastrous retail sales reading for December 2018 that was released in the early afternoon. Corporate earnings remain a major theme on the US stock market with today’s disappointing Coca-Cola report being the most widely commented one.
Situation on the FX market is quite similar to the one we saw yesterday, at least when we take a look at leaders. NZD keeps trading as the best performing G10 currency for the second straight day. Among the biggest laggard one can find the British pound and the Canadian dollar. When it comes to the former, Brexit is still weighing down on the valuation. In case of the latter, weak manufacturing sales print and oil decline was putting the pressure on. While oil has already managed to erase drop, CAD remains depressed. South African rand can be named the worst performing EM currency as Eskom crisis continues to gather dark clouds over the economy.
Precious metals are all trading lower today with silver and platinum leading a drop. Similar underperformance can be spotted on the base metals and agricultural goods markets. On the other hand, energy commodities manage to resist broad downward pressure. Indeed, oil traded significantly lower earlier but managed to recoup losses.
Bears dominate on the cryptocurrency market today. Capitalization of the whole market pulled back to $120 billion mark led by Bitcoin, EOS and Dash declines.
