Stocks advance pauses as China markets tumble - 5.11.2021

The Dollar strengthening has stalled 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, surged 0.6% Thursday after the US Labor Department report 269 thousand Americans sought unemployment benefits over the last week, down from 283 thousand the previous week.

Both GBP/USD and EUR/USD reversed their climbing Thursday as the Bank of England held interest rates steady despite investors’ expectations that it would become the first major central bank to hike rates following the pandemic. Both euro and Pound are higher against the Dollar currently. Both USD/JPY and AUD/USD reversed their climbing yesterday with the Australian dollar lower against Greenback currently and yen higher.

Futures on three main US stock indexes are down currently with US 10-year Treasury note yields up at 1.540% after Fed chair Powell on Wednesday said the Fed can be patient on hikes. The three main US stock benchmarks ended mixed Thursday after strong labor data while the central bank said Wednesday it will begin to curb the pace of its monthly bond-buying program by $15 billion per month “later this month” - initial jobless claims for last week were below forecasts. Indexes recorded daily returns in the range of -0.1% to 0.8% with SP500 and Nasdaq booking new all-time records while Dow slipped.

European stock indexes are higher currently after closing up Thursday led by tech shares. Asian indexes are in red today with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng leading losses as developer Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd. and its Hong Kong-listed units were suspended from trading after the company said a subsidiary had missed a payment on a wealth management product.

Brent is edging lower currently. Prices ended lower yesterday after a report that Saudi Arabia's oil output will soon surpass 10 million barrels per day (bpd) for the first time since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The support for oil prices from the decision of OPEC and its allies at a Thursday meeting to stick to plans to raise oil output by 400,000 bpd from December despite calls from the United States limited the losses however. The US oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) ended down 2.5% and is lower currently. Brent crude lost 1.8% to $80.54 a barrel on Thursday.