Markets mixed following weak Wall Street lead - 17.11.2023

The Dollar strengthening has resumed 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 flat Thursday while the Department of Labor data showed the number of Americans who sought unemployment benefits over the last week was higher than the forecast while their number rose.

EUR/USD reversed its sliding on Thursday while GBP/USD ended little changed. Both euro and Pound are lower against the dollar currently. Both USD/JPY and AUD/USD reversed their climbing yesterday with the yen higher against the Greenback currently and the Australian dollar lower still.

US stock indexes futures are mixed currently as the yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes edged down to 4.439%. The three main stock benchmarks ended mixed in a narrow range of -0.1% to 0.1% on Thursday after disappointing outlooks from retail and chipmaking giants Walmart and Cisco respectively.

European stock indexes are higher currently after closing lower on Thursday led by oil and gas shares. Asian stock indexes futures are mostly retreating today with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index leading losses dragged by technology shares after the e-commerce giant Alibaba scrapped the planned spin-off and listing of its cloud unit citing uncertainties over the supply of chips needed for artificial intelligence development after the US tightened its chip export ban against China to cover AI-related materials.

Brent is edging higher currently. The international oil benchmark closed below $80 yesterday on crude oil demand worries as data from the world's largest oil importer indicated Chinese refiners processed lower amounts of oil in October than the prior month. The US oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) slumped 4.9% but is higher currently. Brent futures tumbled 4.6% to $77.42 a barrel on Thursday.