Markets pause after Wall Street ends little changed - 16.11.2021

The Dollar strengthening has ceased 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, rose 0.5% on Monday as data showed manufacturing activity in New York surged in November.

GBP/USD joined EUR/USD’s accelerated retreating Monday as European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said that tightening monetary policy now to rein in inflation could choke off the euro zone’s recovery. Both euro and Pound are higher against the Dollar currently. USD/JPY joined AUD/USD’s continued advancing Monday with both the Australian dollar and yen lower against the Greenback currently.

Futures on three main US stock indexes are mixed currently ahead of US retail sales report at 14:30 CET today. Stocks ended mixed Monday with bank stocks, which benefit from higher bond yields, offsetting losses from tech shares which tend to fall as interest rates rise: the stock index benchmarks booked daily returns in the range of -0.04% to 0.00%.

European stock indexes are down currently after ending marginally higher Monday led by retail and utilities shares. Asian indexes are mixed today with Hang Seng leading gains after president Biden and Xi Jinping started their closely-watched talks warmly, with the Chinese leader calling the US President an “old friend”.

Brent is edging higher currently ahead of data from the American Petroleum Institute later today. Prices closed mixed Monday supported by speculation that President Biden's administration could release crude oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve. US West Texas Intermediate WTI gained 0.1% and is higher currently. Brent slid 0.2% to $82.05 a barrel on Monday.