Risk appetites stayed strong with US equities climbing to new record highs yesterday. DJIA closed up 117.86 pts, or 0.64%, at 18613.52. S&P 500 closed up 10.30 pts, or 0.47%, at 2185.79. Nasdaq closed up 23.82 pts, or 0.46%, at 5228.40. All three indices closed at new records. 10 year yield rebounded to close at 1.573, staying in near term range below 1.628. Asian markets followed with Nikkei trading up 1% at the time of writing. Gold continues to be stuck in range trading between 1310/60 and is hovering around 1345 for the moment. WTI crude oil recent recovery is is pressing 55 handle. In the currency markets, risk appetite is supporting commodity currencies with Canadian, Aussie and Kiwi being the strongest ones for the week. Sterling remains the weakest one followed by Yen.
In US, San Francisco Fed president John Williams said that "as the economy gets closer to its goals, we can again pull our foot off the gas a bit and hopefully execute a nice, soft landing over the next couple of years." And that would include a rate hike this year. Meanwhile, he didn't agree to the view for Fed to hike only when inflation reaches 2% target as "that would put us significantly behind the curve". Market pricing for rate hike continues to fluctuate. Currently, fed fund futures indicate 51.9% chance of a Fed hike by December. Nonetheless, dollar is getting very little support for the change is expectation so far.
Released from China, industrial production rose 6.0% yoy in July. Retail sales rose 10.2% yoy. Fixed assets investment rose 8.1% yoy. All data deteriorated from June's figures and missed expectations. From New Zealand, retail sales rose 2.3% qoq in Q2 versus expectation of 1.0% qoq. Business NZ manufacturing index dropped to 55.8 in July. Eurozone GDPs will be the main focus in European session where industrial productions and German CPI will be released. From US, retail sales, PPI, business inventories and U of Michigan confidence will be featured.