The US dollar is strengthening against most currencies. The US dollar index (#DX) closed in the positive zone (+0.38%) on Friday’s trading session. The American currency was supported by weakening investors’ expectations regarding a sharp reduction in the Fed’s interest rate at the next meeting on July 30-31. The president of the Federal Reserve Bank (FRB) of St. Louis, James Ballard, said he was in favor of reducing the rate by only 0.25 percentage points instead of 0.5%, as participants in financial markets had previously assumed.
On Friday, ambiguous economic data were also published in the United States. Thus, the consumer expectations index from the University of Michigan in July was 90.1 and turned out to be better than the expected value of 89.8. However, at the same time, the consumer sentiment index from the University of Michigan counted to 98.4 and was worse than the predicted value of 98.6.
Today, the US-Mexico deal regarding migrants is expiring and it is not yet clear what the next step of US President Donald Trump will be. The United States and Mexico reached an agreement in June of this year, according to which it was decided that if the United States deemed that Mexico did not do enough for migrants from Mexico to the United States to return to their homeland before July 22, two countries would begin negotiations on changing the rules. We recommend keeping track of current information on this issue.
The “black gold” prices show a positive trend. At the moment, futures for the WTI crude oil are testing the mark of $56.90 per barrel.
Market Indicators
- On Friday, the US stock markets were bearish: #SPY (-0.56%), #DIA (-0.30%), #QQQ (-0.73%).
- The yield on 10-year US government bonds is at 2.04-2.05%.
The news feed 2019.07.22:
- Today the publication of important economic news is not expected.
