Market Wrap: Stocks, Bonds, Commodities
On Monday, U.S. stocks reversed early losses to close slightly higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining 137 points (+0.32%) to 42,792, the S&P 500 up 5 points (+0.09%) to 5,963, and the Nasdaq 100 up 19 points (+0.09%) to 21,447.
Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 were up for a sixth session.
Market sentiment was once dampened by credit ratings agency Moody's downgrading the U.S. sovereign rating by one notch to "Aa1".
Tesla (TSLA) fell 2.25%, Apple (AAPL) dropped 1.17%, while Microsoft (MSFT) closed 1.01% higher.
Dollar General (DG) gained 4.95%. Both Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs raised their price targets on the discount retailer.
Novavax (NVAX) surged 15.01% after its COVID-19 vaccine was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Moderna (MRNA) also added 6.15%.
The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield once climbed to a one-month high of 4.564% before retreating to 4.449%.
The U.S. Conference Board leading index declined 1.0% month on month in April (vs -0.6% expected), marking its second consecutive monthly decline.
In Europe, the DAX 40 rose 0.70%, the FTSE 100 added 0.17%, while the CAC dipped 0.04%.
Gold price rebounded 26 dollars to 3,229 dollars an ounce.
U.S. WTI crude-oil futures edged up 17 cents to 62.14 dollars a barrel.
Market Wrap: Forex
The U.S. dollar weakened against other major currencies amid the Moody’s downgrade of the U.S. rating. The dollar index declined to 100.35.
EUR/USD rose 80 pips to 1.1243.
USD/JPY fell 82 pips to 144.80.
GBP/USD advanced 88 pips to 1.3360.
AUD/USD added 57 pips to 0.6457. Later today, Australia’s central bank is expected to cut its key interest rate by 25 basis points to 3.85%.
USD/CHF dropped 35 pips to 0.8342, and USD/CAD was down 13 pips to 1.3952.
Bitcoin showed big swings, as it ran up to an intraday high of 107,137 dollars before retreating to 102,105 dollars. It last traded at levels around 105,200 dollars.
Source: Trading Central Economic Insight