Market Update – August 2 – U.S. rating downgraded at Fitch

US stock futures fell Tuesday night after Fitch downgraded the US’s long-term rating to AA+ from AAA Tuesday night, citing ”an erosion of governance and expected fiscal deterioration over the next three years”. The agency called out brinksmanship in Washington around debt ceiling negotiations earlier this year. This sparked some risk aversion flows with APAC indices falling led by Japan while JPY is strengthening on safe haven trading even if Bank of Japan has pushed back on speculation its recent policy adjustment marked the start of a tightening cycle. Bonds are lower around the globe with 10Y US back above 4% and 10Y JGB at 0.62%. The negativity in Asia was also fostered by the softening of the manufacturing activity across the ASEAN region that expanded at the slowest pace in 7 months. We saw some weak macro data in the US yesterday (ISM, Jolts Jobs Openings) and particularly eye-catching has been the Crude Oil inventory data which pointed to a record weekly drawdown (-15.4M) and helped Crude to climb above $82. Earnings season is more than halfway over with results coming in stronger than expected. Of the S&P 500 companies that have reported, about 82% have posted positive surprises as of last night.

US Debt to GDP ratio
  • FX – JPY is the best performing major this morning, USDJPY0.45% to 142.68, EURUSD +0.04% at 1.0989. All other currencies are down vs the USD with antipodean leading the losses, AUDUSD0.56% at 0.6577, NZDUSD -0.74% at 0.6104. USDIndex just shy of 102.
  • Stocks – Futures are negative this morning: US500 -0.49%, US100 -0.78%, GER40 -1.17%. Asia fell led by NIKKEI -2.44%, HK – 2.23%. AMD rose 2% after market after reporting better-than-expected quarterly results.
  • Commodities – USOil regains $82, $82.17 now. Copper clearly lost $400 ($389 now), Agriculturals trade up with conviction.
  • Gold – stuck at $1949 this morning, XAG at $24.32.

Today: US ADP National Employment. EARNINGS: PayPal, Qualcomm.

Biggest Mover: (@6:30 GMT) JPN225 (-2.42%) trading at 32590 and just in contact with its 50d MA. RSI negatively sloped at 48.36, 5 month trendline awaits at 32k this morning.

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Marco Turatti

Market Analyst

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