1. The U.S. Market falls for the Fourth Day; Dollar Strengthens
Dow Jones is now down for the fourth straight day with today being the expiry of many index and stocks in the market, also known as quadruple witching day. Dow Jones is on its worst week since January after the Fed Announcement on Thursday triggered profit booking.
The dollar is strengthening with USDINR now at 74.12. Commodity prices are down sharply.
Stoxx Europe is down 1.48%
Dow Jones is down 1.49%
NASDAQ is down 0.66%
2. Oil Weakens As Dollar Shows Strength
Oil prices dropped continuously on Friday as the U.S dollar rises in view of interest rate hikes in the United States. Though demand is rising in the global markets, the U.K reporting rising Covid cases is a concern. At the time of writing, Brent Oil prices are showing some reversals.
3. Expecting To Repay The Covid Aid Soon, Says Lufthansa CEO
The CEO of German airline Lufthansa said, the company is expecting to repay the state aid it received during the pandemic, before Germany’s federal election in September. Lufthansa was crushed down due to low passenger volume during the covid crisis and then received the aid of Rs 81,296 crores from Germany and its other home countries.
4. U.K Retail Sales Drop Beyond Expectations
U.K retail sales fell 1.4% between April and May, as people started spending in restaurants rather than shops after the ease of lockdown restrictions. In annual terms, retail sales were 24.6% higher than in May last year, short of the median expectation for a 29.0% increase. U.K’s stock market index, FTSE, closed 1.76% down.
5. U.S. Opens Investigations Into Tesla Crashes
The U.S auto safety regulators on Thursday announced 30 investigations into Tesla crashes involving 10 deaths since 2016, where advanced driver assistance systems were suspected of use.
Of the 30 Tesla crashes, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration(NHTSA) has ruled out Tesla’s Autopilot in three and published reports on two of the crashes. Tesla didn’t respond to this.
6. U.K Opens Covid Vaccination For All Adults
The U.K on Friday opened up the country’s Covid-19 vaccination program to all adults, which is considered as the “final push” to offer protection against Covid.UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said, “Offering all adults a jab less than 200 days after the program launched is one of our country’s greatest collective achievements”.
7. Michael Burry Warns Retail Traders of ‘Mother of All Crashes’
The hedge fund manager who shorted the U.S. housing market in 2008 has now warned retail investors about huge losses. He said that investors could lose money worth the size of countries if they crypto and ‘meme stocks’ like Gamestop crash. “All hype/speculation is doing is drawing in retail before the mother of all crashes”, he tweeted out.
Interestingly, he had turned bullish on GameStop in 2019, much before the current meme rally started.
8. Europe Opens Gates for Tourists from the U.S.
The European Union has officially lifted travel restrictions for U.S. residents, with confidence from higher vaccination rates. The delta variant of Covid-19 is still creating issues for European countries.
The move will be a huge boost for airlines including America’s Delta Air Lines and Europe’s Lufthansa. A reaction from stock prices of these companies can be watched to predict how our airline stocks might react to the re-opening of the economy.
9. Japan Plans to end Virus Emergency in Tokyo
Japan plans to end the virus emergency in Tokyo, according to the first planned date of June 20. This is just a month before the hosting of the Summer Olympics in the country. The country is still struggling to contain the spread of Covid-19 with just 6.4% of the population being fully vaccinated. Many local protests had come out demanding cancellation of the games, but the Government is set to move ahead as scheduled.
10. Commodity Prices Lose Momentum
With iron ore and other metals prices being suppressed by China, investors are closely watching if the commodity market bull rally is over. Crude oil prices are being supported near the highs by limited supplies and Gold is moving according to Federal Reserve’s policies. “From a commodity-price perspective, I can see the structural argument still for prices to stay elevated or go higher going forward”, said Michael Widmer, from Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London.
