Yesterday, the US currency continued to strengthen against the basket of major currencies. The US dollar index (#DX) closed in the positive zone (+0.31%). Demand for the US currency is still high. The Turkish lira has begun to cover losses after the conflict with the US. The Central Bank of Turkey provided a list of measures to prevent a financial crisis in the country.
The British pound weakened after the publication of weak reports on the UK labor market. The average wage level, taking into account bonuses, slowed down to 2.4% in June, while experts expected 2.5%. The number of jobless claims rose to 6.2K instead of the forecasted value of 3.8K in July. Also, the value for June was revised from 7.8K to 9.0K. At the same time, the unemployment rate fell from 4.2% to 4.0%. German ZEW economic sentiment index counted to -13.7 and was better than the forecasted value of -20.1.
The “black gold” prices are declining. At the moment, futures for the WTI crude oil are testing a mark of $66.85 per barrel. At 17:30 (GMT+3:00) data on the US crude oil inventories will be published.
Market Indicators
Yesterday, the bullish sentiment was observed in the US stock market: #SPY (+0.64%), #DIA (+0.46%), #QQQ (+0.63%).
At the moment, the 10-year US government bonds yield is at the level of 2.88%-2.89%.
The news feed on 2018.08.15:
Consumer price index in the UK at 11:30 (GMT+3:00);
Data on retail sales in the US at 15:30 (GMT+3:00).
