Headlines:
- What a difference a week makes in Wall Street
- This may be one of the most important charts in the stock market now
- US president Trump on Iran situation: Things are moving along very nicely
- Iran reportedly says that Strait of Hormuz agreement with Oman will be delayed so long as US threats continue
- Gold surges above $4,100 as expectations for a US-Iran deal reduce inflation, Fed tightening risk
- Euro area services sector drives business activity rebound in July – PMI data
- UK July final services PMI 52.1 vs 51.8 prelim
Markets:
- WTI crude up 0.3% to $76.00
- European equities higher; S&P 500 futures up 0.4%
- GBP leads, NZD lags on the day
- US 10-year yields down 1.6 bps to 4.61%
- Gold up 2.3% to $4,170
- Bitcoin down 0.3% to $64,087
The US-Iran conflict continues to draw the attention of broader markets but there wasn’t much of any new developments today.
All the talk is still on an agreement between Iran and Oman over the “reopening” of the Strait of Hormuz over the next 60 days. The US claims that things are done and that they are in talks again with Iran. However, Iran is not offering any confirmation of that and says that the agreement will only take effect once US threats are nullified.
Oil prices are keeping steadier on the day after the big drop earlier this week, with WTI crude up 0.3% to $76.00.
After the record-breaking day in Wall Street yesterday, all eyes are once again on US stocks and tech shares in particular. S&P 500 futures are up 0.4% with Nasdaq futures up 0.2%. Despite strong earnings, AMD shares are down 8% in pre-market but it follows from the over 7% gains in the run up to the earnings release and also after SpaceX said that it will stop buying AMD chips and turn to Nvidia chips instead moving forward.
Chipmakers and semiconductors will continue to be in focus with Sandisk and Western Digital earnings due later today after the close.
In other markets, the dollar is holding a little lower on the day with EUR/USD up 0.1% to 1.1545 and USD/JPY down 0.1% to 157.55. The jury is still out on how things will play out with USD/JPY after the joint intervention by the US and Japan. And that is keeping the currency market fairly on edge so far this week.
Meanwhile, 10-year yields in the US are down 1.6 bps to 4.61%. So, some cooling signs there will help with the broader risk mood too. And in that lieu, gold is seen trading higher by 2.3% to $4,170 today. Is there going to be a technical break for the precious metal above $4,200 to start the upside trend?
We’ll see. In the meantime, the market focus is also slowly turning to the US jobs report due on Friday. For today, we have the ADP numbers coming up later.
This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.