Equities venture up after Wall Street ended mixed - 17.6.2024

The Dollar strengthening is intact currently. 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, ended 0.2% higher on Friday.

Both GBP/USD and EUR/USD continued their sliding on Friday while preliminary French inflation reading for May was downgraded to 2.6% from 2.7%. Both Pound and euro are lower against the Dollar currently. USD/JPY continued its advancing while AUD/USD continued its sliding on Friday with both the yen and the Australian dollar lower against the Greenback currently.

US stock indexes futures are higher currently after ending mixed on Friday. The three main US stock benchmarks recorded daily returns in a narrow range from -0.15% to 0.15% after the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment survey came in below expectations at 65.6 in June, down from 69.1 a month earlier.

European stock futures are up after closing lower on Friday led by bank shares. Asian stock indexes futures are mostly rising today with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index leading gains as Chinese retail sales exceeded forecasts with a rise of 3.7% on the year while the People's Bank of China (PBOC) kept its one-year rate unchanged.

Brent is steady currently. Prices ended slightly lower on Friday while the US active oil rig count, an early indicator of future output, fell by four to 488 last week to its lowest since January 2022, according to energy services firm Baker Hughes. US West Texas Intermediate WTI slipped seventeen cents but is little changed currently. Brent lost 0.15% to $82.62 a barrel on Friday. For the week, both Brent and the US benchmark gained nearly 4% over the week, highest weekly rise in percentage terms since April.