CURRENCY MARKET WRAP
As of Wed 8 Jan, Singapore Time zone UTC+8
U.S. Dollar Index, +0.32%, 96.98
USDJPY, +0.09%, $108.47
EURUSD, -0.41%, $1.1149
GBPUSD, -0.40%, $1.3117
USDCAD, +0.29%, $1.3002
AUDUSD, -1.02%, $0.6870
NZDUSD, -0.46%, $0.6642
U.S. ISM Non-Manufacturing Index for December registered a 55.0% reading (consensus 54.3%), up from 53.9% in November and the fastest pace since August 2019. Factory Orders declined 0.7% m/m in November (consensus -0.8%) following a downwardly revised 0.2% increase (from 0.3%) in October. Shipments were up 0.3% following a 0.1% increase in October. The trade deficit narrowed to $43.1 billion in November (consensus -$43.5 billion) from an upwardly revised $46.9 billion (from -$47.2 bln) in October.
Iran stepped up its retaliatory threats against the U.S., but the lack of follow-through reassured investors that the situation currently presents little threat to the U.S. economy. Similarly, a pullback in oil prices ($62.68/bbl, -0.58, -0.9%) reflected skepticism that the situation would meaningfully disrupt production.
U.S. Treasuries finished the tight-ranged session little changed. The 2-yr yield remained at 1.54%, the 10-yr yield increased two basis points to 1.83%. The U.S. Dollar Index increased 0.32% to 96.98.
STOCK MARKET WRAP
S&P500, -0.28%, 3,237.18
Nasdaq, -0.03%, 9,068.58
Nikkei Futures, +0.97%, 23,325.0
Within the stock market, all 11 S&P 500 sectors still finished lower in a lackluster session. The real estate sector (-1.2%) was today’s weakest performer, followed by the consumer staples (-0.7%) and financials (-0.7%) sectors. A fade into the close pushed the communication services (-0.04%), information technology (-0.1%), and industrials (-0.1%) sectors into negative territory.
Semiconductor stocks were among today’s strongest performers after Microchip (MCHP 110.69, +6.96, +6.7%) raised its Q3 revenue guidance and Micron (MU 58.27, +4.71, +8.8%) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Cowen. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 1.8%.
Other notable gainers included Apache (APA 32.51, +6.87, +26.8%) after it announced a significant oil discovery off the shore of Suriname and Tesla (TSLA 469.06, +17.52, +3.9%) after it officially opened its Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai.