Dollar Up, Gold and Oil Down
U.S. 10-year Treasury bond prices were nearly flat today, after pushing
higher towards the yearly record. Bonds rose steadily through the summer on
underlying concern for slowing U.S. growth, but fell back on anticipation of the
rate cut. Now that the Fed has cut rates, bonds have wavered in a fairly tight
range, but have surged over the past week on pervading, underlying U.S. economic
negative sentiment.
The yen surged across the board, and the dollar also bounced back against the
euro. On Friday, U.S. equity markets sold off hard, leading to a reversal of the
carry trade. The yen shot higher as traders bought back borrowed currency, and
continues to rise today. The dollar bounced against the euro, in line with the
yen. The dollar rose against the Canadian dollar and the British
pound.
Crude oil futures fell about 0.5%, after plummeting on Friday. Crude oil sank
on Friday, opening lower and then falling through the day on concerns for
slowing growth and demand. Today, crude followed through and continued to drop,
but bounced back to regain major losses. Crude recently hit all-time record
prices above $90 in overnight trading. Natural gas futures fell about 1.8%
today.
Gold futures fell over 1%, in line with energy weakness and dollar strength.
Gold normally trades inversely to the dollar and with crude oil, which is
exactly what happened today. Traders sold gold in the face of dollar strength
and falling crude prices. Copper futures fell about 1%.
Grains were lower today. Soybeans fell 0.6%, and corn dropped about 1.6%.
After starting the day in the red, stocks recovered to post gains across
the board. Click
here to read the rest of today’s
Stock Market Recap.
Economic News |
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