TGIF in what is a holiday-shortened week. What is moving the markets. In Europe there was no economic data out of Europe today and traders are reluctantly back from the Christmas and Boxing day holiday. In the US there will be some modest data out at 8:30 AM ET with:
- Good trade balance for November, Est. -100.6B vs -99.0B last month. With the Trump tariffs expected this may be influenced
- Whole inventories advanced for November. Est 0.2% vs 0.2% last month. Retail inventories ex auto is also due . Last month the data showed a 0.1% gain
What is moving… Well if open, the markets are moving. Looking at the USD, it is modestly lower/mixed vs the major currencies:
- EUR -0.12%
- JPY -0.15%
- GBP -0.24%
- CHF +0.18%
- CAD -0.22%
- AUD unchanged
- NZD -0.25%
The USDJPY reached a new high going back to July 17 yesterday but has backed off modestly. The pair has been supported as the Fed has pared back the number of cuts in 2025 and the Bank of Japan taps the brakes on expectations for more hikes as a result of uncertainty from the new US President Trump and the impact from the expected tariffs.
Yesterday in the US stocks, they closed mixed with modest changes on the day
- Dow rose 28.77 points or 0.07%
- S&P fell -2.45 points or -0.04%
- Nasdaq fell -10.77 points or -0.05%
In premarket trading today, the futures are implying a lower open:
- Dow –153 points
- S&P -21 points
- Nasdaq -80 points
In the US debt market, the yields are mixed with the shorter end lower and the longer end of the curve higher after moving lower yesterday:
- 2-year 4.328%, -0.04 bps
- 5-year 4.445%, up 1.2 bps
- 10-year 4.601% up 2.2 bps
- 30-year 4.796%, up 3.5 bps
In other markets:
- Crude oil is trading up $0.59 or 0.83% at $70.21
- Gold is down -$7.00 or -0.27% at $2625.50
- Silver is doen -$0.27 or -0.95% at $29.51
- Bitcoin is trading up $537 at $96240
In other news, Goldman Sachs sees a Fed cut in March and 3 total cuts in 2025. That is more aggressive than the market is pricing and the Fed is projected (the market is actually marginally less than 2 cuts). The cuts will come despite solid growth, core PCE still greater than 2% and unemployment rate steady to lower by year end. Specifically: