Equities hold the optimism, counting down to US data later

Read full post at forexlive.com

The Japanese yen might have stolen the focus during the session but it’s time to forget about that for a while. The US PCE price data is coming up later and that will be an important release to watch. It is the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation after all. And following the reaction to the US Q1 advance GDP data yesterday, it is clear that market players are still playing close attention to inflation data at the moment.

For now, equities are keeping the optimism after the late rebound in Wall Street yesterday. Tech shares are of course leading the charge, after earnings beat from Alphabet and Microsoft. S&P 500 futures are up 0.7% while Nasdaq futures are up 1.0%. Dow futures are only up 0.2% currently. In Europe, major indices are also higher with the DAX up 0.7% and CAC 40 up 0.3% on the day.

Stocks have enjoyed a bit more of a steadier showing this week. However, it doesn’t take away from the rather poor performance overall in April. Sellers are not out of the picture yet and we’ll have to see if the data later offers them something to work with at the end of the week. The 100-day moving average (red line) for the S&P 500 is still not too far away for now: