CURRENCY MARKET WRAP
As of Thu 27th Dec, Singapore Time zone UTC+8
U.S. Dollar Index, -0.09%, 97.56
USDJPY, +0.16%, $109.54
EURUSD, +0.09%, $1.1101
GBPUSD, +0.31%, $1.3001
USDCAD, -0.40%, $1.3108
AUDUSD, +0.38%, $0.6946
NZDUSD, +0.59%, $0.6673
The holiday sales results showcased the strength of the U.S. consumer, while reports that the U.S. and China are close to signing a Phase One trade deal kept investors at ease. Initial claims for the week ending December 21 decreased by 13,000 to 222,000, as expected. Continuing claims for the week ending December 14 decreased by 6,000 to 1.719 million.
U.S. Treasuries held steady throughout the session. The 2-yr yield was unchanged at 1.63%, and the 10-yr yield declined one basis point to 1.91%. The U.S. Dollar Index declined 0.09% to 97.56. WTI crude rose 0.9%, or $0.55, to $61.70/bbl.
STOCK MARKET WRAP
S&P500, +0.51%, 3,239.91
Nasdaq, +0.78%, 9,022.39
Nikkei Futures, +0.88%, 23,917.5
Amazon’s (AMZN 1868.77, +79.56) 4.5% gain stood out after the company said it had another record-breaking holiday season. A separate report from MasterCard SpendingPulse indicated that total retail sales, excluding autos, increased 3.4% yr/yr from Nov. 1 through Dec. 24 while online sales rose 18.8%.
It was no surprise, then, to see the S&P 500 consumer discretionary sector (+1.4%) as today’s sector leader. The communication services (+0.8%) and information technology (+0.7%) sectors followed suit amid solid gains in Apple (AAPL 289.91, +5.64, +2.0%), Alphabet (GOOG 1360.40, +16.84, +1.3%), and Facebook (FB 207.79, +2.67, +1.3%).