Today’s weekly initial jobless claims was not in line with last week’s 222,000 figure.
- The Initial Jobless Claims report from the US Department of Labor showed an increase of 11,000 claims during the week of May 19th to 234,000.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) data should announce one of the strongest areas of the economy — home prices. But home sales, the latest update coming from today’s existing home sales report, was not positive.
- Home prices slowed in March based on the FHFA house price index which rose only 0.1 percent for the lowest result in more than three years.
President Trump is advocating for new tariffs on cars and trucks imported to the U.S and this has affected overnight markets. An additional duty of up to 25 percent may be under consideration. This policy proposal has affected the overnight markets.
Overnight,
- The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dropped 0.2 percent,
- Japan’s Topix index closed 1.2 percent lower as automakers were hit following the US move on tariffs.
In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index was 0.3 percent higher by 5:40 a.m. as markets bounced back from yesterday’s selloff, led by tech stocks,
- The region’s auto sector was also under pressure.
- S&P 500 futures pointed to a small gain at the open,
- the 10-year Treasury yield was at 3.008 percent
- Gold advanced.
