EQUITIES
Stocks chopped sideways in typical late-summer trade. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were flat, the Dow dipped a fraction, while the Russell 2000 outperformed modestly. Sector-wise, Industrials and Consumer Discretionary led, with Real Estate and Energy lagging. One notable corporate storyline: reports that the administration is weighing a 10% equity stake in Intel, potentially swapping some CHIPS Act grants for shares. European bourses were mixed to slightly lower into the close. Among the major benchmarks, the CN50 was the strongest (+0.9%) while the EU50 was the weakest (-0.51%).
FOREX
The dollar started the week on the front foot with the DXY back above 98. EURUSD couldn’t hang onto 1.1700, GBPUSD tested the 1.3500 area, and USDJPY pushed up toward 148. Among G10, CAD was the strongest performer on the session, with a very close struggled between the JPY, EUR and GBP for the bottom spot.
COMMODITIES
After initially falling at the open on Monday, Crude ground higher through the US afternoon with WTI settling around USD 62.70 and Brent near USD 66.60, with the push up coinciding with a report suggesting the US could leverage intelligence-sharing to help press for a Ukraine deal. Spot gold was a touch lower and LME copper eased slightly, with gold seeing a lot of chop (down initially, then up strongly, and then down to session lows again). Overall, a choppy mess for commodities yesterday.
BONDS
Treasuries drifted lower (yields a shade higher) in a narrow range as traders kept their powder dry for Powell’s Jackson Hole appearance. The 10-year sat around the mid-4.3s%, with small parallel moves across the curve. Inflation breakevens were little changed to slightly softer. In Europe, Bund futures found some support.
Crypto
Saw a bit more action compared to the rest, with BTC and ETH dipping more than 2% on the session before putting in a very decent bounce. For BTC, price managed to hold on and stay above the 50DMA with price currently testing prior SR around 117K at the moment.
All in all, not a very exciting day across markets, apart from the earlier drop in Crypto.
