Equities pause as Evergrande missed interest payment deadline - 24.9.2021

The Dollar strengthening has resumed 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, lost 0.5% Thursday after the US Labor Department report 351 thousand Americans sought unemployment benefits over the last week, up from 335 thousand the previous week.

Both GBP/USD and EUR/USD reversed their sliding Thursday as the Bank of England kept monetary policy unchanged and downgraded UK economic growth projections for the third quarter of this year. Both pairs are lower currently. Both USD/JPY and AUD/USD continued climbing yesterday with both yen and the Australian dollar lower against the Greenback currently.

Futures on three main US stock indexes are down currently with US 10-year Treasury note yields up at 1.442%. The three main US stock benchmarks ended solidly higher Thursday despite disappointing labor data - initial jobless claims for last week were above forecasts: indexes recorded daily gains in the range of 1.04% to 1.48%.

European stock indexes are lower currently after closing higher Thursday despite data showing that euro zone business activity grew at its slowest pace in five months in September. Asian indexes are mostly down today with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng leading losses after reports some offshore bondholders of China Evergrande had not received interest payments by the Thursday deadline - shares fell 11% after 17.6% rebound the previous day.

Brent is edging higher currently. Prices rose yesterday to 2-month highs amid reports some members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies have struggled to ramp up production after low investments or delays in maintenance work during the pandemic. The US oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) ended up 1.5% and is higher currently. Brent crude added 1.4% to $77.25 a barrel on Thursday.