investingLive European markets wrap: Dollar lightly lower as Fed week gets underway | investingLive
Headlines:
Markets:
- GBP leads, USD lags on the day
- European equities higher; S&P 500 futures up 0.2%
- US 10-year yields flat at 4.068%
- Gold flat at $3,644.19
- WTI crude up 0.4% to $62.81
- Bitcoin down 0.3% to $114,907
There wasn’t too much in European morning trade today as markets are mostly gearing towards the Fed policy decision later this week.
US-China trade talks are continuing in Madrid with not much progress, though a probe by Beijing in finding that Nvidia violated antitrust law is clouding the situation further. The chip giant’s shares are down around 1.6% in pre-market but US futures are holding up as a whole, with S&P 500 futures seen higher by 0.2% currently.
In FX, the dollar weakened slightly on the session with little catalysts in general. GBP/USD is up 0.4% to be back above 1.3600 while EUR/USD extended higher after a narrower range in Asia, now seen up 0.2% to 1.1758. Besides that, USD/JPY is down 0.2% to 147.35 while AUD/USD is up 0.2% to 0.6660 on the day.
All eyes are on the Fed decision on Wednesday and that’s keeping traders on edge in waiting on key communique from Powell & co. especially. A 25 bps rate cut is widely expected but today we got Societe Generale joining Standard Chartered as the only two houses calling for a 50 bps rate cut.
In other markets, gold is keeping more pensive as it continues to consolidate near record highs before the next move. The bond market is also lightly changed as traders and investors see not much conviction to start the week, keeping the anticipation on the Fed decision this week.