Asia Morning July 2

On Wednesday, U.S. stocks closed mixed. The Nasdaq 100 closed 122 points (+1.21%) higher to a fresh record of 10279 and the S&P 500 rose 15 points (+0.50%) to 3115, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 77 points (-0.30%) to 25735.


E-Mini Nasdaq-100 Futures (September 2020): Intraday 30-minute Chart:


Source: GAIN Capital, TradingView


Media (+2.89%), Retailing (+2.58%) and Real Estate (+2.57%) sectors were the best performers, while the Energy (-2.49%), Automobiles & Components (-2.04%) and Banks (-1.87%) sectors were laggards. FedEx (FDX +11.89%), Amgen (AMGN +8.17%), Netflix (NFLX +6.72%) and Constellation Brands (STZ +6.21%) were top gainers.

On the technical side, about 42.3% (38.5% in the prior session) of stocks in the S&P 500 Index were trading above their 200-day moving average, and 31.7% (17.7% in the prior session) were trading above their 20-day moving average.

The Automatic Data Processing (ADP) Jobs Report showed that the U.S. economy added 2.369 million private jobs in June (+2.850 million expected). The Markit U.S. Manufacturing Purchasing Mangers' Index rose to 49.8 in June (49.6 expected). Construction Spending slipped 2.1% on month in May (+1.0% expected).

Investors will closely watch tonight the release of the U.S. official jobs report for June (an addition of 3.074 million Nonfarm Payrolls, a fall in Jobless Rate to 12.5% expected). And Initial Jobless claims for the week ended June 27 (a decline to 1.350 million expected) will be reported.

Also, Trade Balance for May (an increase in deficit to 53.1 billion dollars expected), Factory Orders (+8.6% on month expected) and Durable Goods Orders (+15.8% expected) will be reported.

European stocks were broadly lower. Germany's DAX 30 declined 0.4%, while both France's CAC 40 and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 were both down 0.2%.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield remained firm climbing up to 0.682%.

Spot gold price retreated $10.00 (-0.6%) to $1,769 an ounce halting a four-session rally.

Oil prices rebounded after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a bigger-than-expected draw in crude-oil stockpiles of 7.2 million barrels last week. U.S. WTI crude oil futures (August) rose 1.4% to $39.82 a barrel.

On the forex front, the ICE U.S. Dollar Index dropped 0.3% on day to 97.15, amid mixed U.S. economic data.

EUR/USD climbed 0.2% to 1.1252. Official data showed that Germany's jobless rate edged up to 6.4% in June (6.5% expected) from 6.3% in May, while retail sales rose 13.9% on month in May (+3.5% expected). Meanwhile, the eurozone's jobless rate for May will be reported later in the day (7.7% expected).

GBP/USD advanced 0.6% to 1.2477. Bank of England monetary policy committee member Jonathan Haskel said BOE "now expect the second quarter as a whole will not be quite as negative as expected".

USD/JPY retreated 0.5% to 107.43.