Asian markets ended Thursday modestly higher for the most part, as a strengthening dollar helped in some cases, and investor sentiment improved slightly. There was still caution ahead of the Jackson Hole summit slated to begin later in the day, but investors seemed hopeful that event would help dissipate risk-off sentiment. Gains in Hong Kong led the region as the Hang Seng played catch-up after Wednesday’s closure due to typhoon Hato. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 continued climbing on strength from mining shares, but Japan’s Nikkei ended the day lower on investor caution.
European markets paused ahead of the Jackson Hole economic summit, ending the day mixed on a country specific basis. German and Spanish markets edged higher, while the French CAC40 was slightly lower. Markets movements were mixed all week as traders were unable to establish a direction ahead of the Jackson Hole meeting. Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen and ECB President Mario Draghi are scheduled to speak later today, which could mean another directionless day for European markets. Meanwhile, investors in the U.K. seemed more upbeat, sending the FTSE100 higher by 0.33% despite lackluster GDP and consumer spending reports released on Thursday.
U.S. markets ended Thursday lower after swinging between gains and losses throughout the day. The markets got a boost in the afternoon after House Speaker expressed optimism over the passage of a tax-reform bill, but the recovery was short-lived and markets dropped before the close. As the weekly gains will be posted, it could snap a four week losing streak for the Nasdaq and a two week losing streak for the Dow and S&P 500.
FOREX
EUR/USD
The pair saw little movement on Thursday, trading in a tight range around the 1.1800 level and only seeing a 34 pip difference in the daily high and low levels. Traders are understandably awaiting the speeches of Fed chairwoman Janet Yellen and ECB president Mario Draghi, which are scheduled for Friday at the Jackson Hole summit.
USD/CAD
After rising for almost nine consecutive sessions, USD/CAD seems to make a round trip as it has been down for the past six sessions. The drop came as the U.S. dollar firmed broadly, and crude sold-off on concerns that approaching hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico would cause crude demand to decline. The Canadian dollar is sensitive to moves in crude, and this pair often moves in opposition to crude prices, so the decline in tandem with crude was surprising and indicates that currency traders may not be as convinced as crude traders about the impact of the hurricane on crude demand.
Cryptocurrencies
Cryptocurrencies were mixed on Thursday, with Bitcoin and Ethereum both giving back early gains, while Ripple gave back some of the massive gains made in the previous session, and rival DASH advanced.
Commodities
Metals
Precious metals ended Thursday mixed as a stabilizing U.S. dollar and mixed sentiment ahead of Friday’s speeches by Fed chair Yellen and ECB president Draghi at Jackson Hole kept traders from making any large bets. Both gold and silver edged lower by 0.2% and 0.5% respectively, while platinum and palladium gained 0.2% and 0.3% respectively on continued belief in strengthening automotive demand for the metals.
Oil
Usually, crude gains ahead of Gulf of Mexico hurricanes, as traders expect production shutdowns, but on Thursday crude retreated as traders believed that hurricane Henry could dampen demand for crude in the coming weeks. There was still pressure on crude due to U.S. production remaining at a two year high.
Indices
Nasdaq
The technology heavy index recovered from steeper losses and finished just modestly lower. The index remains 0.9% higher on a weekly basis, and if it can finish Friday without giving back all those gains will score its first winning week in five weeks. This would likely give a boost of confidence in American stocks.
FTSE 100
British investor sentiment recovered on Thursday, FTSE100 rising by 0.33%, despite worse-than-expected economic data. U.K. GDP for Q2 resulted at 0.3%, which was better than the first quarter results, but still showed weaker than hoped for growth. Consumer spending report also showed a slowdown, with British consumers obviously feeling the impact of negative wage growth in the U.K.
Stocks
Walmart
Shares of the mega-retailer fell on Thursday. The prices were depressed after the announcement from Sears that they would be closing 28 more Kmart stores this year following another quarterly loss. The pressure increased after Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) announced discounts at its newly acquired Whole Foods, a move that will likely increase order volumes and customer acquisition and retention for the largest U.S. retailer. Amazon also said that its Prime members would receive “special savings and in-store benefits,” a move clearly calculated to increase Prime membership and lure consumers away from competitors such as Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT).