UK and US markets are closed for a holiday, leading to subdued trading
Wall Street stocks finished marginally higher on Friday, struggling to see more robust gains as the data showed that personal consumption expenditures rose by 3.6% in April while core PCE came in at 3.1%, well above the Fed’s long-term target of 2%. As such, the S&P 500 ended up 0.08%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.19%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.09%.
Today in Asia, equities were mixed after the data showed that China’s manufacturing activity held steady in May. Japan reported weaker-than-expected growth in factory output while May retail sales fell 4.5% from the previous month. The Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.41%, the Nikkei 225 shed nearly 1%, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong climbed 0.09%, and the S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney was off 0.25%.
European stocks slipped from record highs on Monday in subdued trading as UK and US markets are closed for a holiday, with the pan-European STOXX 600 index being down 0.1% in early trade. In individual stocks, the U.S. Federal Reserve told Deutsche Bank it was failing to address persistent shortcomings in its anti-money-laundering controls. The German lender’s shares fell over 1.5% following the announcement.
Meanwhile, the dollar treads water in tight trading ranges at the start of the week. EURUSD has settled just below the 1.2200 figure following a bounce from the 20-DMA seen on Friday. The pair looks indecisive after finishing last week unchanged. In the short term, the common currency needs to hold above the mentioned moving average that now arrives around 1.2150.
