CURRENCY MARKET WRAP
As of Tue Nov 19th, Singapore Time zone UTC+8
U.S. Dollar Index, -0.13%, 97.82
USDJPY, -0.03%, $108.67
EURUSD, +0.17%, $1.1072
GBPUSD, +0.21%, $1.2947
USDCAD, -0.17%, $1.3202
AUDUSD, -0.17%, $0.6805
NZDUSD, -0.05%, $0.6396
U.S session began with the market digesting a tweet from a China-based CNBC reporter, who said she was informed by a Chinese government source that Beijing is pessimistic about a trade deal because Trump hasn’t supported a tariff rollback. Based on the modest losses and ensuing price action, the market presumably remained optimistic about a Phase One agreement.
U.S. Treasuries extended last week’s advance, pushing yields slightly lower across the curve. The 2-yr yield declined two basis points to 1.59%, and the 10-yr yield declined three basis points to 1.81%. The U.S. Dollar Index declined 0.13% to 97.82.
STOCK MARKET WRAP
S&P500, +0.05%, 3,122.03
Nasdaq, +0.11%, 8,549.94
Nikkei Futures, -0.03%, 23,353.0
The large-cap indices eased their way into positive territory thanks to the turnarounds in the S&P 500 consumer discretionary (+0.3%), information technology (+0.3%), and communication services (+0.3%) sectors. Consistent leaders included the consumer staples (+0.5%) and real estate (+0.5%) sectors, as the negative-sounding trade headline likely fostered some conservative-minded interest.
The trade-sensitive industrials (-0.3%) and materials (-0.2%) sectors were among today’s laggards, but their losses were small compared to the 1.3% drop in the energy sector, which was pressured by the decline in oil prices ($57.04, -0.71, -1.2%).
Notable corporate news included HP Inc. (HPQ 20.01, -0.17, -0.8%) turning down the takeover bid from Xerox (XRX 39.30, +0.36, +0.9%). HP remained open to a deal, though. Netflix (NFLX 302.57, +7.54, +2.6%) shares outperformed on speculation that either Carl Icahn or Bill Ackman built a large stake in the company.