Stocks Mixed as Dollar Tests Highs Again

Choppy summer trading conditions continue to dominate traditional financial markets, with low train volumes and relatively narrow intraday ranges in most of the asset classes. Despite the low activity, there is still a clear rising trend in US markets, while the rest of the world tries to gather some bullish momentum despite the widespread technical relative weakness.

Trump’s controversial meeting with Putin still made the most headlines, although stocks largely ignored the story, while trade war fears and the Brexit drama had much stronger impacts, with especially the Pound performing weaker than its peers.

Dow Futures, 4-Hour Chart Analysis

The Nasdaq is still trading just below its all-time high, despite today’s weaker session, while the S&P 500 hit another marginal 5-month high today, with the Dow still lagging behind the rest of the market. The ongoing earnings season also adds to the choppiness of the day-to-day price action, and with the deep global divergences still present, we remain defensive towards equities here.

Shanghai Composite, 4-Hour Chart Analysis

Asian equities experienced a bounce in the last couple of weeks, but China which has been the epicenter of the weakness in June is still struggling to join the move. The trade-war torn Shanghai Composite is still trading near its recent lows, confirming the bear market, while the Yuan hit new 12-month lows compared to the USD in the last couple of days again.

Commodities Mixed as Yuan Tumbles but Dollar Rally Looms

Emerging market currencies are generally under pressure, and the Dollar has been pushing higher against its major peers as well today, with the Great British Pound and the Euro both sliding towards their June lows, and the Yen hitting a new year-to-date low before the afternoon pullback in the Greenback.

Dollar Index, 4-Hour Chart Analysis

The Dollar’s rally, which was boosted by the lower than expected British CPI release in European trading paused somewhat in late trading, after the Dollar index got close to its 1-year high. The US housing market showed a huge drop in activity in July, with Building Permits disappointing and Housing Starts falling off a cliff unexpectedly. The rising yields, which are behind most of the moves this year, are talking a tall on the segment, and that could be a major drag on GDP growth in the coming quarter.

Gold Futures, 4-Hour Chart Analysis

Commodities posted a reversal-like performance today, with gold, oil, and copper all rebounding off their early lows, but for now, the bearish short-term trend remains dominant in the segment. The bounce in gold still left the precious metal below short-term resistance at $1240, while copper is still bouncing around just above long-term support. WTI Crude Oil which lost more than 10% in a matter of days, found support at $66 per barrel, entering a consolidation phase after the rout.