Stocks mixed after Wall Street retreated again - 18.11.2024

The Dollar is steady today. 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 0.1% lower on Friday.

Both EUR/USD and GBP/USD continued their sliding on Friday while the Office for National Statistics reported the UK gross domestic product came in at below expected 0.1% in the three months to September compared to the previous quarter. Both Pound and euro are higher against the Dollar currently. USD/JPY reversed its advancing while AUD/USD reversed its sliding on Friday with the yen lower against the Greenback currently and Australian dollar little changed.

US stock indexes futures are mixed currently after retreating again on Friday. The three main US stock benchmarks closed lower recording daily losses in the range from -2.2% to -0.7% led by pharmaceutical stocks after President-elect Donald Trump nominated vaccine sceptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr to be the US Health Secretary.

European stock futures are mixed after closing down on Friday led by media shares. Asian stock indexes futures are mostly rising today with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index leading gains while the Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda reiterated the central bank will keep raising interest rates if economic and price developments move in line with its forecasts, but made no mention of whether a hike could come in December.

Brent is edging higher currently. Prices ended more than 2% lower on Friday on weaker Chinese demand concerns after from the National Bureau of Statistics showed China's oil refiners in October processed 4.6% less crude than a year earlier because of plant closures and reduced operating rates at smaller independent refiners. US West Texas Intermediate WTI lost 2.45% but is up currently. Brent fell 2.1% to $71.04 a barrel on Friday.