CURRENCY MARKET WRAP
As of Wed Jul 24th, Singapore Time zone UTC+8
Dollar Index +0.40%, 97.71
USDJPY, +0.33%, $108.24
EURUSD, -0.53%, $1.1151
GBPUSD, -0.30%, $1.2438
USDCAD, +0.16%, $1.3141
AUDUSD, -0.59%, $0.6995
NZDUSD, -0.92%, $0.6697
In trade,Robert Lighthizer and senior U.S. officials are set to travel to China next Monday for the first high-level, face-to-face trade negotiationsbetween the world’s two biggest economies since talks broke down in May. However, U.S. officials have played down the likelihood of a quick deal with China. “It is impossible to judge how long it will take when the president’s objective is to get a proper deal or go ahead with tariffs,” Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross told Bloomberg TV on Tuesday. “What is important is if we make a deal, it’s a proper deal, a really good deal. That’s his overriding objective. And that’s much more important than exact timing.”
Congress also reached a deal to increase the budget deficit and suspend the debt ceiling for two years.The news provided some relief for investors, but market reaction was mostly muted as the dilemma never appeared to hinder the market beforehand and it was reported yesterday that a deal was close.
U.S. Treasuries finished on a lower note, pushing yields higher across the curve. The 2-yr yield increased two basis points to 1.83%, and the 10-yr yield increased three basis points to 2.07%. The U.S. Dollar Index advanced 0.4% to 97.71, helped by some weakness in the euro. WTI crude rose 0.9% to $56.72/bbl.
In UK, frontrunnerBoris Johnson has defeated rival Jeremy Hunt in the contest to replace Theresa May as Conservative party leader and as Britain’s prime minister. The biggest task for Johnson will be to take Britain out of the EU, but his hardline strategy has plenty of critics. Sterling had little reaction as Johnson’s win was inline with expectations. The attention will now be on who will make up the new Cabinet and what will Johnson’s first move to the EU be as PM.
STOCK MARKET WRAP
S&P500, +0.68%, 3,005.47
Nasdaq, +0.63%, 7,954.56
Nikkei Futures, +1.58%, 21,698.0
S&P 500 increased 0.68% on Tuesday, bolstered by encouraging trade news and positive earnings reports from widely-held companies. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (+0.7%), Nasdaq Composite (+0.63%), and Russell 2000 (+0.7%) advanced in-line with the benchmark index.
It had been a tight-ranged session for a good part of the day despite positive earnings results and guidance from a diversified group of companies like Coca-Cola (KO 54.33, +3.11, +6.1%), United Technologies (UTX 134.94, +1.99, +1.5%), Sherwin-Williams (SHW 490.23, +35.64, +7.8%), and Biogen (BIIB 243.88, +11.40, +4.9%). Travelers (TRV 147.50, -2.21, -1.5%), however, did come up short of expectations
Ten of the 11 S&P 500 sectors finished higher, led by the trade-sensitive materials (+2.0%) and industrials (+1.2%) sectors. The utilities sector was the lone holdout, finishing lower by 0.6%. Qualcomm (QCOM 74.12, -1.83, -2.4%) was also left out of the advance after The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple (AAPL 208.84, +1.62, +0.8%)is considering buying Intel’s (INTC 51.75, +0.40, +0.8%)smartphone-modem chip business for around $1 billion. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index finished up 1.2%.