US stocks mostly declined overnight amid another week of dismal jobless claims data. US jobless claims for the week that ended on Saturday totaled 1.9 million, slightly higher than expected. The S&P 500 fell for the first time in five days and lost 0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose or less than 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.7%. later today, the Labor Department releases its monthly jobs report for May.
In Asia, stocks climbed and US futures advanced, boosted by record amounts of stimulus from central banks. As a reminder, the European Central Bank added €600bn to its bond-buying program, taking it to €1.35 trillion yesterday. Furthermore, according to the latest reports, Trump administration officials increasingly expect to spend up to $1 trillion in the next round of stimulus, which is adding to investor optimism.
European equities opened higher on Friday, heading for the best weekly gain since early April. Despite the ECB Governor Christine Lagarde lowered growth and inflation forecasts yesterday, investors cheered the outcome of the meeting as the central bank expanded its pandemic emergency purchase program by a bigger-than-expected amount. Dow futures climbed decently, signaling a rebound from a downbeat session on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the dollar remains under the selling pressure as risk-on tone reemerged. As a result, the euro extended the rally towards fresh two-month highs marginally below the 1.14 handle earlier in the day. Since then, the EURUSD pair has retreated to the opening levels amid local profit-taking. Of note, risk sentiment could deteriorate in the short term as China said it vows countermeasures against the US list on 33 entities. The immediate significant support arrives around 1.13. Despite the correction, the technical picture looks extremely bullish in the weekly charts, with the euro seeing strong gains for the third week in a row.
