Stocks down after US stocks ended mixed - 21.6.2024

The Dollar strengthening is intact today. The live dollar index data show the ICE US Dollar index, a measure of the dollar’s strength against a basket of six rival currencies, ended 0.4% higher on Thursday.

Both EUR/USD and GBP/USD reversed advancing on Thursday while the Bank of England kept interest rates unchanged at a 16-year high of 5.25% whereas the Swiss National Bank lowered its policy rate by 0.25 percentage points to 1.25%. Both euro and Pound are lower against the dollar currently. USD/JPY accelerated its advancing while AUD/USD reversed its climbing yesterday with both the yen and the Australian dollar steady against the Greenback currently.

US stock index futures are lower  with the yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes up at 4.252%. The three main stock benchmarks ended mixed on Thursday with daily returns in the range of -0.8% to 0.8% while the Department of Labor data showed 238 thousand Americans sought unemployment benefits over the last week, down from upwardly revised 243 thousand the previous week.

European indexes futures are down today after stock indexes closed higher on Thursday with tech shares leading gains. Asian stock indexes futures are mostly lower today with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng leading losses.

Brent is edging lower currently. Prices ended higher on Thursday on demand recovery signs after data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed a drawdown in US crude stockpiles by 2.5 million barrels last week while gasoline supplies fell unexpectedly by 1.5 million barrels. There was no settlement for the US oil benchmark WTI yesterday because of a US public holiday. Brent futures rose 0.8% to $85.71 a barrel on Thursday.