An uneasy start to the trading week as markets react to further bullying on trade from the Trump regime, with distracting letters sent to the EU and Mexico over the weekend. The USD was up slightly on the weekend gap before losing those gains later in the session as the EU indicated it will just continue talks and hold off on any retaliations (until TACO Tuesday of course). And despite the trade war with the US, China posted a sizeable jump in exports for June while Bitcoin climbed to a new record high.
Oil markets are still lifting slightly higher following the upside reaction to the OPEC+ production increases with Brent crude trading just above the $70USD per barrel level while gold is trying to make a comeback after retreating just below the $3300USD per ounce level last week:
Mainland Chinese share markets are gaining on expected stimulus measures and the export numbers with the Shanghai Composite up 0.4% going into the afternoon session while the Hang Seng is basically treading water to stay just above the 24000 point level. Meanwhile Japanese stock markets are doing the same with Nikkei 225 unchanged just below the 40000 point barrier with USDPY the only pair finding some strength being pushed above the 147 level again:
Australian stocks are also dead flat with the ASX200 stuck at just below the 8600 point level while the Australian dollar is holding somewhat steady just below the 66 cent level against USD:
S&P and Eurostoxx futures are down slightly going into the London session with the S&P500 daily chart showing the market clearly overextended but holding just under the 6300 point level:
The economic calendar basically has Euro and Treasury auctions and not much else on the agenda as we await the US CPI print coming later this week.