Between the US election, central bank decisions and earnings season, it has been a busy week for world markets. US stocks and the US Dollar have been charging particularly hard. It is not a huge surprise then, that Friday finds traders starting to take profits ahead of the weekend, especially since banks and government offices are closed on Monday for Remembrance Day / Veterans Day.
US index futures are trading flat to down 0.2%. The Dow had already started to run out of steam yesterday with a flat finish while the S&P 500 and NASDAQ charged ahead. The US Dollar on the other hand, is rallying again, shrugging off Thursday’s correction, posting gains of 0.3%-0.4% against the Euro, Yen, Loonie and Pound. The US 10-year treasury note yield is steady near 4.30% following yesterday’s as expected 0.25% Fed interest rate cut.
With the US Dollar climbing, commodities are tumbling again. Copper is down 2.2% while US Crude Oil is down 1.7%. Gold, meanwhile is down 0.25% and Silver is down 0.75%. The resource weighted FTSE is down 0.7%, while the Dax and CAC are down about 0.6%.
Signs of stagflation have re-emerged in Canada as the country added fewer jobs than expected last month (14K vs street 25K and previous 46K). Average hourly wages increased (4.9% vs previous 4.5%), indicating that wage inflation has started to accelerate again. China inflation numbers are due over the weekend.