Asia Morning June 22

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By :  ,  Financial Analyst

Asia Morning: Stocks Ease as Virus Cases Resurge

On Friday, U.S. stocks showed signs of fatigue, as investors digested Apple's (AAPL -0.57%) announcement of closing some stores in Arizona, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina due to a resurgence in coronavirus cases. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 208 points (-0.8%) to 25871, the S&P 500 dropped 17 points (-0.6%) to 3097, and the Nasdaq 100 dipped 3 points to 10008.


Dow Jones Industrial Average: Daily Chart


Source: GAIN Capital, TradingView


Utilities (-3.1%), Consumer Durables & Apparel (-2.06%) and Consumer Services (-2%) stocks lagged behind. Airline stocks such as American Airlines (AAL -2.97%), United Airlines (UAL -6.35%), Delta Air Lines (DAL -4.16%) and Southwest Airlines (LUV -3.63%) were under pressure. Cruise companies such as Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH -5.64%), Royal Caribbean (RCL -6.73%) and Carnival (CCL -5.26%) also suffered losses.

Amazon.com (AMZN +0.79%) marked a fresh record close at $2,675.01.

On the technical side, about 43.3% (43.5% in the prior session) of stocks in the S&P 500 Index were trading above their 200-day moving average, and 52.0% (56.3% in the prior session) were trading above their 20-day moving average.

U.S. official data on Existing Homes Sales for May (a decline to an annualized rate of 4.15 million units expected) will be reported later today.

European stocks closed broadly higher, with the Stoxx Europe 600 Index rising 0.6%. Both Germany's DAX and France's CAC rebounded 0.4%, and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 jumped 1.1%.

U.S. government bond prices remained firm, as the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield eased further to 0.691%.

Spot gold price surged $21.00 dollar (+1.2%) to $1,743 an ounce.

Oil prices advanced further, as U.S. WTI crude oil futures (July) added 2.3% to $39.75 a barrel.

On the forex front, the ICE U.S. Dollar Index extended its rally to a fourth straight session, gaining 0.2% on day to 97.62.

EUR/USD fell 0.2% to a two-week low of 1.1177. Later today, the eurozone's Consumer Confidence Index for June will be released (-15.0 expected).

GBP/USD dropped 0.6% to 1.2358, the lowest level since May 29. Official data showed that U.K. retail sales rose 12.0% on month in May (+6.3% expected).

USD/JPY slipped 0.1% to 106.89.

Related tags: Commodities Forex Equities

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