Global stocks retreat as US Treasury yields climb - 11.4.2022

The Dollar strengthening continues currently. 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, added 0.1% on Friday.

GBP/USD joined EUR/USD’s continued sliding Friday. Pound is lower against the Dollar currently while Euro is up. AUD/USD continued its retreating Friday and USD/JPY continued advancing with both the yen and  Australian dollar lower against the Greenback currently.

Futures on US equity benchmarks are down currently ahead of Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman’s speech today at 15:30 CET. US stocks ended mixed on Friday while 10-year Treasury yields ended 31 basis points higher last week. The three main US stock benchmarks recorded daily returns ranging from -1.34% to +0.4%.

European stock indexes are retreating currently after ending higher on Friday led by oil and gas shares. French president Emmanuel Macron and far right challenger Marine Le Pen qualified on Sunday for presidential election runoff on April 24. Asian indexes are down today with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index leading losses as China's inflation data showing a relatively modest 1.5% over year inflation in March was deemed not high enough to prompt aggressive policy easing by Beijing.

Brent is edging down today  as China's lockdowns continue with Shanghai, a city of 26 million people, locked down under its "zero tolerance" policy for COVID-19. Prices advanced on Friday but booked their second straight weekly decline. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures rose 2.3% but is lower currently. Brent crude gained 2.19% to $102.78 a barrel on Friday.