Eurozone investor confidence rose for the fourth month in a row in June
Wall Street stocks finished higher on Friday after a US government report showed the economy created 559,000 new nonfarm jobs in May, less than expected. The data helped ease worries about monetary policy tightening by the Federal Reserve and this pushed stocks higher ahead of the weekend. As such, the S&P 500 gained 0.88%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.52%, and the Nasdaq rallied 1.47%.
Today in Asia, equities were mixed due to the persisting worries about the coronavirus pandemic in the region despite the vaccine rollout is gradually picking up steam in Asia. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 0.27% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed nearly 0.5%. In China, the Shanghai Composite gained 0.21% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.19%.
European stocks were marginally lower at the open before turning mixed in recent trading, with investors getting more cautious ahead of the US CPI data due on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the report showed that Eurozone investor confidence rose for the fourth month in a row in June, reaching its highest level since February 2018. Sentix’s index climbed to 28.1 from 21.0 in May versus 26.0 expected. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was up 0.1% in recent trading while Nasdaq futures were down 0.4% ahead of the opening bell.
Meanwhile, the dollar is steady on Monday after a sell-off seen across the board ahead of the weekend. EURUSD managed to bounce from the 1.2100 figure but failed to overcome the 20-DMA around 1.2170 earlier in the day, suggesting the pair lacks recovery momentum at this stage, with short-term downside risks persisting ahead of the US CPI report that could send the common currency lower.
