The strongest to the weakest of the major currency pairs
The CHF is the strongest and the EUR is the weakest as the NA session begins. The CHF is gettting some kick to the upside from flight to safety flows o n the news of Putin’s calling of the reserves to mobilize (first time since WWII) as his plans for Ukraine remain unchanged (“this is not a bluff”). Read Adam’s post here for some background on the Russian leader and his thinking. The SNB is also in play this week with a hike of 75 or 100 basis points tomorrow. The US Fed will preempt the SNB (and BOE and BOJ as well who announce their decisions tomorrow) with a likely hike of 75 basis points today at 2 PM with the focus shifting to the terminal expectations, the inflation and growth trajectories from the central tendencies and of course the chairs press conference. Coming off the Jackson Hole speech just a few weeks ago, it is harder to see a major shift away from the “kill at all cost inflation” theme. The US dollar is higher and behind the CHF as the next strongest of the major currencies.
Despite the news past and future, yields are a bit lower today after the 2 year pushed the 4% level yesterday and the 10 year the 3.60% level. The US stocks are also higher after ups and downs in pre-open trading.
A look at the markets shows:
- Spot gold is trading up $10.59 or 0.64% at $1675
- Spot silver is up $0.30 or 1.54% at $19.53
- WTI crude oil (November) is trading at $86 which is up $2.06 or 2.45%
- Bitcoin is trading at $19,162. That is up from a low of $18,800. The high price today has so far reached $19,203
In the premarket for US stocks, the major indices are higher after declines yesterday saw each fall around -1.0%
- Dow industrial average is up 134.77 points after yesterdays -313.45 point decline
- S&P index is up 14 points 4 points after yesterdays -43.94 point decline
- NASDAQ index is up 25 points after yesterdays -109.97 point decline
In the European equity markets,, the major indices have reversed earlier declines in trade marginally higher:
- German DAX, +0.05%
- France’s CAC +0.16%
- UK’s FTSE 100 +0.7%
- Spain’s Ibex unchanged
- Italy’s FTSE MIB +0.7%
In the US debt market, yields are lower with the 10 year back down to 3.536% after pushing the 3.6% level yesterday. The 2 year is just off the 4% level 3.950%:
US rates are lower ahead of the Fed decision
in the European debt market, the yields are also trading to the downside. The German 10 year yield reached a cycle high of 1.954%, which briefly took out the high from June at 1.926%. The current yield is at 1.893%. The German 10 year yield reached the highest level since January 2014.
European benchmark 10 year yields are lower