The dollar is rising across the board on Wednesday
Wall Street stocks finished little changed overnight to begin a post-holiday week, with investors looking ahead to the government’s monthly jobs report update on Friday. The S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed 0.05% and 0.09%, respectively while the Dow Jones gained 0.13%.
Asian markets were mixed on Wednesday. Stocks in Hong Kong and China retreated, while Japanese stocks climbed higher. The data showed Australia’s economy grew decently last quarter, with output rising back above where it was last year before the pandemic. as such, S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney gained 1.05%, Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed nearly 0.5%. Bucking the trend, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and China’s Shanghai Composite shed 0.58% and 0.76%, respectively.
In Europe, equities opened marginally higher, inching toward record levels on Wednesday. The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.1% in early trade. In his latest remarks, the ECB’s Knot said that recovery in Europe seems to be going faster than expected. He also added that sustainable recovery only possible if coronavirus is contained on a global scale.
Meanwhile, the dollar is rising across the board on Wednesday. As such, EURUSD slipped to three-day lows around 1.2170 where the ascending 20-DMA lies, adding to Tuesday’s losses on the back of the improved sentiment around the greenback. Furthermore, fresh data showed that German retail sales contracted 5.5% in May versus the previous month and expanded 4.4% over the last twelve months.
Oil prices keep rising on Wednesday following yesterday’s rally that took the barrel to the $71.30 area, as OPEC+ provided an upbeat demand assessment and the prospect of a speedy return of Iranian barrels waning. Later today, the API weekly report could affect market sentiment. On the negative side, dollar recovery caps gains in the oil market at this stage.
