SIA Wealth Morning Minutes will not be issued for the rest of this week, it will return on Tuesday, July 2nd.
NASDAQ futures are trying to bounce back this morning with a 0.4% gain clawing back some of yesterday’s 1.0% NASDAQ loss which was driven by a significant correction in several of the large-cap technology stocks that had been driving the index higher for much of this year. Dow futures are down 0.1%, while S&P futures are up 0.2%.
Over in Europe, meanwhile, equity markets have turned downward once again with the Dax falling 1.0%, the CAC sliding 0.8% and the FTSE falling 0.2%. Sentiment remains cautious ahead of next week’s elections in the UK and France. Adding to an emerging theme of incumbent parties struggling at the polls which started with the European Parliamentary elections earlier this month, this morning it was announced that the incumbent Liberals in Canada lost a by-election in a Toronto riding that they had held for over thirty years.
Inflation remains a concern for investors and some central bankers. Canadian consumer prices came in hotter than expected both for the headline (2.9% vs street 2.6%) and core (1.8% vs previous 1.6%) numbers. Meanwhile Fed Governor Michelle Bowman suggested yesterday that not only is she against cutting rates, she could be in favour of raising rates if inflation picks up again. These two events suggest that we may not see any more rate cuts in North America for some time. US house prices are due later this morning.
Cryptocurrencies are rebounding today. Bitcoin is up 2.3% and has peeked back up above $60,000. Gold is down 0.2%. Commodities are weakening again with Copper down 0.7%, US Crude Oil down 0.5% and Natural Gas down 0.4%.