It’s the morning before US Thanksgiving which usually means the heavy hitters are likely getting ready to head home for the holidays around midday and not return until Monday once they are done with turkey, football and shopping.
Ahead of the US holiday, there are a number of economic reports out this morning. Durable goods orders were worse than expected (0.2% vs street 0.5%), but the Q3 GDP update (1.9% vs street 1.8%) and initial jobless claims (213K vs street 217K) were better than expected.
Chicago PMI (street 44.7) is due at 9:45 am EST, followed by Core PCE inflation and pending home sales at 10:00 am. Canada GDP and European inflation data come out on Friday along with anecdotal Black Friday mall traffic reports.
The US Dollar is in retreat this morning, falling 1.0% relative to both Gold and the Japanese Yen. This would normally suggest a defensive flow of capital except that cryptocurrencies are also rallying today with Bitcoin up 2.8% and Ether up 5.1%. The Euro and Pound are both up 0.6%, while the Loonie is steady. US index futures are quiet trading between -0.2% and +0.2%. European markets are pulling back with the Dax down 0.3% and the FTSE down 0.1%. US Crude Oil and Copper are up 0.5% and 0.6% respectively.