The global dollar headed toward a strong weekly close on Friday, approaching one-year highs, while the U.S. president’s change of stance Federal Reserve drove up short-term US Treasury yields, dragging equities down.
Shares in Asia, meanwhile, ended a tough week on a steadier note, boosted by Chinese data that showed retail sales in the world’s second-largest economy beat October expectations, which was positive for consumer spending. , although other indicators were not so favorable.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell stated the day before that there was no need to rush rate cuts as the economy continues to grow. Fed funds futures fell, with just 71 basis points of rate cuts implied by the end of 2025. Additionally, the probability of a cut in the following month fell to 61% from 82.5% in the previous session. .
“Following the initial boost from Donald Trump’s election and its subsequent effects on corporate earnings expectations, market enthusiasm is waning due to increased uncertainty over rates, especially regarding next year,” said analyst Kyle Rodda. senior at Capital.com.
Wall Street and dollar
On Wall Street, Nasdaq futures fell 0.9% and S&P 500 futures fell 0.6%. The European STOXX 600 index fell 0.4%, hurt by a 2% drop in the healthcare subsector, while the broader measure of MSCI shares stabilized, with a cumulative decline of 1.34% for the week.
The Japanese Nikkei index rose 0.28%, reaching 38,642.91 points, driven by the fall of the yen, which favored Japanese exporters. The dollar, which has been rising against the yen for five days, gained another 0.6% on the day, reaching 155.27 units, its highest level since July.
The dollar achieved a significant weekly increase of 1.7% against its main currencies. The euro rose 0.35% to $1.056625, but was headed for a weekly loss of 1.4%. The strength of the dollar caused the price of gold to fall 4.4% this weeksettling at $2,565 per ounce, leading to a monthly loss of 6.5%.
Source: Ambito
