Asia Morning August 3

On Friday, U.S. stocks closed higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rebounded 114 points (+0.44%) to 26428, the S&P 500 rose 24 points (+0.77%) to 3271, and the Nasdaq 100 jumped 190 points (+1.78%) to 10905.


Nasdaq 100: Daily Chart


Source: GAIN Capital, TradingView


Technology Hardware & Equipment (+8.34%), Retailing (+2.01%) and Media (+0.86%) sectors performed the best.

Apple (AAPL +10.47%) gapped up to close at an all-time high of $425.04 after reporting better-than-expected earnings. The Company also announced a 4-for-1 stock split. Amazon.com (AMZN +3.70%) and Facebook (FB +8.17%) also closed higher, while Alphabet (GOOGL -3.28%) declined.

On the technical side, about 56.0% (57.0% in the prior session) of stocks in the S&P 500 Index were trading above their 200-day moving average, and 65.9% (80.8% in the prior session) were trading above their 20-day moving average.

Regarding U.S. economic data, the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index (final reading) slipped to 72.5 in July, back near the pandemic low.

Personal Income declined 1.1% on month in June (-0.6% expected), while Personal Spending increased 5.6% (+5.2% expected). The Market News International Chicago Purchasing Managers' Index jumped to 51.9 in July (44.0 expected).

Due later today is the Markit U.S. Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (July final reading, 51.3 expected).

European stocks were broadly lower. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index dropped 0.89%, Germany's DAX 30 fell 0.54%, France's CAC 40 shed 1.43%, and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 lost 1.54%.

U.S. government bond prices remained firm, as the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield ticked down to 0.536%.

Spot gold price rebounded $17.00 (+0.9%) to $1,974 an ounce, and spot silver price surged 3.8% to $24.39 an ounce halting a three-day decline.

U.S. WTI crude oil futures (September) climbed 0.9% to $40.27 a barrel. Oil-field-services company Baker Hughes reported that U.S. oil rigs amounted to 180, compared with 181 in the previous week.

On the forex front, the U.S. dollar stabilized, with the ICE U.S. Dollar Index rebounding 0.5% to 93.46. For the whole of July, the Dollar Index lost 4%, the biggest monthly loss since September 2010. 

EUR/USD failed to hold the key level of 1.1800 firmly closing at 1.1778. Official data showed that the Eurozone's 2Q GDP shrank at an annualized rate of 12.1% on quarter (as expected), and July Consumer Prices declined 0.3% on month (-0.5% expected).

In Germany, June Retail Sales dropped 1.6% on month (-3.0% expected). 

GBP/USD ran up to 1.3170 before retreating to close at 1.3086. The Nationwide U.K. House Price Index rebounded 1.7% on month in July (-0.2% expected, -1.6% in June).

USD/JPY rebounded 1.1% to 105.87 halting a six-session losing streak. Japan's jobless rate declined to 2.8% in June (3.1% expected) from 2.9% in May. Industrial Production (preliminary reading) grew 2.7% on month in June (+1.0% expected, -8.9% in May).