CURRENCY MARKET WRAP
As of Thu Jul 4th, Singapore Time zone UTC+8
Dollar Index +0.04%, 96.77
USDJPY, -0.05%, $107.78
EURUSD, -0.03%, $1.1287
GBPUSD, -0.11%, $1.2582
USDCAD, -0.29%, $1.3058
AUDUSD, +0.51%, $0.7031
NZDUSD, +0.44%, $0.6708
U.S. ISM Non-Manufacturing Index dropped to 55.1% in June (consensus 56.1%) from 56.9% in May. The dividing line between expansion and contraction is 50.0%. Factory orders declined 0.7% in May (consensus -0.4%) after declining a downwardly revised 1.2% (from -0.8%) in April. This is the third decline in factory orders over the past four months. Initial claims for the week ending June 29 decreased by 8,000 to 221,000 (consensus 220,000). Continuing claims for the week ending June 22 also decreased by 8,000 to 1.686 million. Initial claims continue to run at relatively low levels, which suggests employers remain reluctant to reduce the size of their workforce. U.S. ADP Employment for June came in at 102K (consensus 140K), rebounding from previous 41K. The ADP figures comes out ahead of the U.S. Labor Department’s more comprehensive non-farm payrolls report on Friday, which includes both public and private-sector employment.
The 2-yr yield increased by 0.1 basis points and the 10-yr yield declined 2.3 basis points to 1.764% and 1.953%, respectively. The U.S. Dollar Index was unchanged at 96.19.
STOCK MARKET WRAP
S&P500, +0.77%, 2,995.82
Nasdaq, +0.74%, 7,857.69
Nikkei Futures, -0.10%, 21,698.0
All eleven sectors ended Wednesday in the green, but like yesterday, the advance was paced by countercyclical groups. Real estate (+1.5%), consumer staples (+1.4%), and utilities (+0.8%) jumped out to an early lead, maintaining their position until the close.
Chipmakers underperformed once again. The PHLX Semiconductor Index lost 0.4%, trimming this week’s gain to 0.8%. Broadcom (AVGO 284.89, -10.44, -3.5%) was the weakest performer, falling 3.5% after Bloomberg reported that the company is in advanced talks to acquire Symantec (SYMC 25.10, +3.00, +13.6%). The broader technology sector (+0.7%) settled just behind the broader market.
In other M&A news, Sprint (S 6.98, +0.10, +1.5%) rallied amid reports that the company’s merger with T-Mobile (TMUS 75.82, +0.34, +0.5%) is likely to be approved by the Department of Justice. Shares of Tesla (TSLA 234.90, +10.35, +4.6%) settled higher after the company reported a larger than expected number of total deliveries in Q2.