ASIA:

The major Asian stock markets had a mixed day today:

• NIKKEI 225 increased 144.04 points or 0.52% to 27,728.12
• Shanghai decreased 10.67 points or -0.31% to 3,466.55
• Hang Seng decreased 221.86 or -0.84% to 26,204.69
• ASX 200 increased 7.90 points or 0.11% to 7,511.10
• Kospi decreased 4.25 points or -0.13% to 3,276.13
• SENSEX increased 123.07 points or 0.23% to 54,492.84
• Nifty50 increased 35.80 points or 0.22% to 16,294.60

The major Asian currency markets had a mixed day today:

• AUDUSD increased 0.00260 or 0.36% to 0.74071
• NZDUSD increased 0.00190 or 0.27% to 0.70600
• USDJPY increased 0.22000 or 0.20% to 109.71
• USDCNY decreased 0.00460 or -0.07% to 6.45850

Precious Metals:

• Gold decreased 5.04 USD/t oz. or -0.28% to 1,806.37
• Silver decreased 0.09 USD/t. oz or -0.34% to 25.271

Some economic news from last night:

Japan:

Foreign Bonds Buying increased from -1,083.0B to 225.6B

Foreign Investments in Japanese Stocks increased from -58.5B to 3.2B

Australia:

Exports (MoM) (Jun) decreased from 6% to 4%

Imports (MoM) (Jun) decreased from 3% to 1%

Trade Balance (Jun) increased from 9.681B to 10.496B

Some economic news from today:

Indonesia:

GDP (YoY) (Q2) increased from -0.74% to 7.07%

GDP (QoQ) (Q2) increased from -0.96% to 3.31%

Singapore:

Retail Sales (YoY) (Jun) decreased from 79.9% to 25.8%

Retail Sales (MoM) (Jun) increased from -6.5% to 1.8%

EUROPE/EMEA:

The major Europe stock markets had a mixed day:

• CAC 40 increased 34.96 points or 0.52% to 6,781.19
• FTSE 100 decreased 3.43 points or -0.05% to 7,120.43
• DAX 30 increased 52.54 points or 0.33% to 15,744.67

The major Europe currency markets had a green day today:

• EURUSD increased 0.00000 or 0.00% to 1.18379
• GBPUSD increased 0.00420 or 0.30% to 1.39297
• USDCHF increased 0.00010 or 0.01% to 0.90652

Some economic news from Europe today:

Germany:

German Factory Orders (MoM) (Jun) increased from -3.2% to 4.1%

IHS Markit Construction PMI (Jul) increased from 47.0 to 47.1

German Car Registration (YoY) decreased from 24.5% to -24.9%

Norway:

Unemployment Rate increased from 5.0% to 5.1%

France:

French Industrial Production (MoM) (Jun) increased from -0.4% to 0.5%

UK:

Construction PMI (Jul) decreased from 66.3 to 58.7

BoE MPC vote cut (Aug) remain the same at 0

BoE MPC vote hike (Aug) remain the same at 0

BoE MPC vote unchanged (Aug) decreased from 9 to 8

BoE QE Total (Aug) remain the same at 875B

BoE Interest Rate Decision (Aug) remain the same at 0.10%

US/AMERICAS:

The S&P 500 reached an all-time high this Thursday after rising by 26.44 points to 4,429.1. Penn National Gaming Inc. led the index’s rise after advancing 9.088%. Wynn Resorts Ltd (8.33%), American Airlines (7.5%), and Royal Caribbean (7.5%) also fueled the historic day of trading as travel and hospitality stocks begin to recover from pandemic lows.

The Labor Department recorded a total of 385,000 initial jobless claims for the week ending on July 31. This marks a 14,000 decline from the week prior and is in line with the Fed’s forecast that employment will begin increasing toward the fall. Continuing claims reached a pandemic low of 2.93 million. This is the first time continuing claims dropped beneath 3 million since March 2020. Tomorrow the highly anticipated jobs report for July will be released.

The US trade deficit reached an all-time high after jumping 6.7% to $75.7 billion. The Commerce Department reported a $1.2 billion increase in exports, outweighed by a $6 billion rise in imports. The current year-to-date trade deficit is now $135.8 billion, representing a 46.4% YoY increase.

Canada experienced a 13-year high surplus in trade this past June. According to Statistics Canada, the nation’s trade surplus reached C$3.23 billion in June, although analysts had anticipated a deficit of C$0.68 billion, Exports grew 8.7% to C$53.76 billion.

US Market Closings:

• Dow advanced 271.58 points or 0.78% to 35,064.25
• S&P 500 advanced 26.44 points or 0.6% to 4,429.1
• Nasdaq advanced 114.58 points or 0.78% to 14,895.12
• Russell 2000 advanced 39.69 points or 1.81% to 2,236.01

Canada Market Closings:

• TSX Composite advanced 45.75 points or 0.23% to 20,375.48
• TSX 60 advanced 2.38 points or 0.19% to 1,223.68

Brazil Market Closing:

• Bovespa declined 168.29 points or -0.14% to 121,632.92

ENERGY:

The oil markets had a mixed day today:

• Crude Oil increased 0.75 USD/BBL or 1.10% to 68.9000
• Brent increased 0.72 USD/BBL or 1.02% to 71.1000
• Natural gas decreased 0.01 USD/MMBtu or -0.31% to 4.1450
• Gasoline increased 0.02 USD/GAL or 1.03% to 2.2732
• Heating oil increased 0.02 USD/GAL or 1.20% to 2.0989

The above data was collected around 12:55 EST on Thursday

• Top commodity gainers: Oat (4.50%), Sugar (3.57%), Corn (1.69%) and Coal (2.13%)
• Top commodity losers: Rubber (-1.57%), Methanol (-3.46%), Palm Oil (-1.82%), and Lumber (-4.87%)

The above data was collected around 13:03 EST on Thursday.

BONDS:

Japan 0.009%(+1bp), US 2’s 0.20%(+0.02%), US 10’s 1.2118%(+3bps); US 30’s 1.86%(+0.023%), Bunds -0.5040% (-1bp), France -0.1640% (-2bp), Italy 0.5389% (-2bp), Turkey 16.87% (+11bp), Greece 0.5330% (-2bp), Portugal 0.105% (-4bp); Spain 0.207% (+4bp) and UK Gilts 0.519% (+1bp).

• US 4-Week Bill Auction decreased from 0.045% to 0.040%
• US 8- Week Bill Auction increased from 0.045% to 0.050%
• French 10-Year OAT Auction decreased from 0.13% to -0.23%
• Spanish 10-Year Obligacion Auction decreased from 0.354% to 0.200%
• Spanish 3-Year Bonos Auction decreased from -0.473% to -0.550%
• Spanish 5-Year Bonos Auction decreased from -0.082% to -0.440%