ECB Meeting In Focus Today

The 4th of July celebrations in US mean markets are closed and an important ECB coming up later. The overnight session was slow with stocks mixed.

While the USD got stronger after strong US employment figures the EUR dropped in anticipation of today’s ECB meeting. It’s expected that President of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi will confirm a delay in the tightening of the monetary policies across Europe. This comes inspite of good news from troubled Portugal where sovereign debt returns climbed after the stepping down of two Portuguese Finance ministers. The ten year bonds climbed by 8 per cent for the first time since last November. Overall analysts expect the Eurozone rate to be left at 0.5 per cent.

Jobless claims from the U.S declined last month to 343 000 as the labour report is expected to demonstrate the addition of 165 000 jobs for last month. This comes after May’s report where a further 175,000 jobs were added.

Stocks

Apart from the Japanese Nikkei, Asian stocks were up with Australian ASX 200 gaining 1 per cent boosted by ell performing mining stocks. In South Korea the Kopsi Index gained 0.18 per cent and in Hong Kong the Hang Seng gained 1.66 per cent, boosted by energy giants.. While in Japan, the Nikkei 225 lost 0.25 per cent as traders moved positions to the JPY as their safe haven asset of choice.

Forex

The EUR was 0.07 per cent lower against its US counterpart as investors sit on sidelines before the ECB meeting later today. The GBP which gained yesterday after the surprisingly good UK PM data, then reversed its fortunes and lost 0.13 per cent. The AUD was up 0.39 per cent against the USD, bouncing back from its three year lows of yesterday. The USD/JPY moved lower by 0.04 per cent as the JPY moved up as the safe haven asset.

Commodities

Crude oil continued climbing, with a 1.67 per cent gain as President of Egypt Morsi was brought down. Gold was up 0.83 per cent and Silver was up 1.77 per cent.

What to watch out for today:

Eyes will be on the upcoming ECB meeting to hear Draghis comments on the interest rate which is widely expected to remain the same and the Portuguese news.