Top daily news
Global equities’ advance continues today after US Trade Representative Lighthizer, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and China’s Vice Premier Liu He agreed in a phone call to strengthen macroeconomic and public health cooperation. Investors are awaiting for US jobs report today - expected to show unemployment jumped to 15.2% from a 50-year low of only 3.5% two months ago after US Labor department report showed over 33 million Americans have lost their jobs in the last seven weeks.
Forex news
| Currency Pair | Change |
| EUR USD | -0.18% |
| GBP USD | -0.48% |
| USD JPY | -0.8% |
| AUD USD | +1.32% |
The Dollar weakening continues today ahead of April jobs report. The live dollar index data show the ICE US Dollar index, a measure of the dollar’s strength against a basket of six rival currencies, fell 0.3% Thursday after report initial jobless claims jumped another 3.2 million last week. Both GBP/USD and EUR/USD reversed sliding yesterday with both pairs lower currently. Pound got a support from Bank of England decision keeping interest rates steady at 0.1% and asset purchases at £645 billion. Both
USD/JPY and
AUD/USD reversed sliding and are higher currently.
Stock Market news
| Indices | Change |
| Dow Jones Index | +0.23% |
| Nikkei Index | +0.55% |
| Hang Seng Index | +0.23% |
| Australian Stock Index | +0.32% |
Futures on three main US stock indexes are higher currently after a surge Thursday. Earnings season continues with another batch of companies including Siemens, Mitsubishi and ING reporting quarterly results today. Stock indexes in US ended solidly higher on Thursday led by technology shares: the three main US stock indexes recorded gains ranging from 0.9% to 1.4%.
European stock indexes are rising today after ending higher Thursday led by retail stocks. Asian indexes are higher today after China’s commerce ministry stated US and China agreed to work together to implement the Phase One trade agreement signed earlier this year:
NIKKEI jumped 2.5%while
Shanghai Composite added 0.8%.
Commodity Market news
| Commodities | Change |
| Brent Crude Oil | +2.55% |
| WTI Crude | +4.49% |
Brent is retracing higher today after retreat on Thursday. Oil prices gave back earlier gains prompted by reports Saudi Arabia, the most influential member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, is raising crude prices for its customers world-wide. However the US oil benchmark
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures ended lower yesterday:
June WTI lost 1.8% but is sharply higher currently.
July Brent crude closed 0.9% lower at $29.46 a barrel on Thursday.
Gold Market News
Gold prices advance is intact today. June gold rose 2.2% to $1725.80 an ounce on Thursday.
