- The market mood remains fairly mixed so far today
- There is a barrage of 7 Federal Reserve speakers due Tuesday, NY’s Williams among them
- Central banks have lost a degree of trust, says ECB’s Makhlouf
- UK April payrolls change -135k vs 31k prior
- Germany May ZEW survey current conditions -34.8 vs -37.0 expected
- Eurozone Q1 GDP second estimate +0.1% vs +0.1% q/q prelim
- IEA warns latest oil price drop is running against backdrop of a supply crunch in 2H 2023
Markets:
- CHF leads, AUD lags on the day
- European equities little changed; S&P 500 futures down 0.1%
- US 10-year yields down 2.9 bps to 3.479%
- Gold down 0.7% to $2,005.98
- WTI crude down 0.3% to $70.92
- Bitcoin down 1.0% to $27,088
It was sideways session as markets are looking fairly tentative after the slightly optimistic start to the new week yesterday.
There wasn’t much meaningful headlines but we did get a bit of a red flag from the UK jobs data, where payrolls declined for the first time since February 2021 as unemployment claims also ticked higher. That might be a sign that the economic weariness is starting to weigh on labour market conditions.
The pound dropped initially on that with GBP/USD falling from 1.2510 to 1.2465 as the dollar also gained some ground amid a more cautious risk mood. But the pair bounced as the dollar surrendered gains, rising back up to 1.2530 currently – little changed on the day.
The greenback saw gains evaporate as equities pared early losses as well during the session. But the overall mood remains more pensive with US futures also marginally lower at the moment.
EUR/USD nudged a little higher from 1.0870 to 1.0900 briefly before settling just below that. Meanwhile, AUD/USD is staying pressured and down 0.4% to 0.6670 after a brief rebound to 0.6690 earlier in the session.
The moves in markets are rather mixed with commodities all mostly lower, with oil moving down after a positive start to the day and precious metals lagging. WTI crude fell to $70.55 before paring some losses back to $70.90 levels now while gold is trailing down by 0.7% to near $2,006 and silver also down 1.4% to $23.77 currently.
It’s now over to US retail sales and Fedspeak to see if the mood music will change in North America trading.
This article was written by Justin Low at www.forexlive.com.