MARKET WRAP: US Retail Sales Data Took The Markets By Surprise


 
Equity markets lost its mojo after the US retail sales number came much lower than expected, in fact, it was the worst reading since 2009.  
 



 Stocks

  • The S&P 500 Index plunged 0.54 percent as of 15:20 London time. The underwhelming US retail was the main reason for pessimism
  • The Nasdaq 100 dropped 0.20 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average also fell by 0.64 percent.
  • The Stoxx Europe 600 Index reacted to weak Eurozone GDP reading and fell by 0.30 percent.
  • Germany’s DAX Index dropped due to the poor German GDP reading. It dropped nearly 0.61% percent.
  • The MSCI Emerging Market Index also moved lower by 0.55% on a volume of 4.8M shares.
Currencies
  • The Dollar Spot Index finally dropped today by 0.68% due to the weak US economic readings, the retail sales number fell came in at -1.8% vs forecast of 0.0%.
  • The Euro jumped higher mainly due to the weakness in the dollar and the EUR/USD moved higher by 0.10 percent; the high of the day was $1.1310.
  • The British pound dropped below a critical level of 1.28 against the dollar due to the Brexit chaos. It GBP/USD fell by 0.58%, the low of the day was 1.2775 and high of the day was 1.2878.
  • The Japanese Yen came back as a risk off haven and jumped by 0.15 percent.
Bonds
  • The yield on 10-year Treasuries sank by four basis points to 2.65 percent.
  • Germany’s 10-year dropped four basis point to 0.09 percent.
  • Britain’s 10-year yield also fell by four basis point to 1.195.
Commodities
  • West Texas Intermediate crude dropped by 1.28 percent to $53.74.
  • Gold failed to move higher because of the lack of any solid demand and moved lower by 0.26%. The support of $1,300 is under focus.



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