Equities trade lower after Wall Street dip - 26.6.2023

The Dollar strengthening has halted today. 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, rose 0.5% Friday.

Both EUR/USD and GBP/USD continued their sliding on Friday as the S&P Global data showed euro-zone business output growth came close to stalling in June. Both Euro and Pound are higher against the Dollar currently. USD/JPY slowed its advancing on Friday while AUD/USD accelerated its sliding with the yen higher against the Greenback currently and the Australian dollar lower.

US stocks indexes futures are down currently after closing lower on Friday while S&P Global report showed US business output expanded at the slowest pace in three months in June. The three main US stock benchmarks recorded daily losses in the range from 0.7% to 1.0% on Friday weighed by hawkish central banks warnings.

European stock indexes futures are lower currently after closing down on Friday led by oil and gas shares. Asian stock indexes futures are retreating today with Australia’s ASX 200 index leading losses.

Brent is up currently on concerns Russia political unrest may impact supply after a revolt by Russian mercenaries over the weekend. Oil prices ended lower on Friday while energy services firm Baker Hughes reported active US oil rig count, an indicator of future production, fell by 6 to 546 last week, the eighth weekly drop in a row. The US oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) lost 0.5% but is higher currently. Brent declined 0.4% to $73.85 a barrel on Friday. Both benchmarks ended the week with losses above 3.5%.