Marcus Today Pre-Market Podcast – Friday 21st July

Wall Street closed mixed overnight as the market digested the latest round of tech earnings and fresh signs of labour market resiliency. Dow Jones up 164 points (+0.47%), marking its ninth straight day of gains, its longest streak since 2017, supported by Johnson & Johnson, which jumped 6% on upbeat revenue and earnings. Dow at best up 312 points. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 fell 0.68%, and the NASDAQ tumbled 2.05%, weighed down by Tesla -9.7% and Netflix -8.4%. US small caps Russell 2000 fell -0.89%, and Wall Street’s fear gauge VIX edged higher, up 1.3%. The US greenback strengthened, and bond yields jumped, with 2Y yield up 11.4bps and 10Y yield up 9bps.

ASX to rise slightly. SPI Futures up 6 points (+0.08%).

Economics: US Initial jobless claims fell by 9k from the prior week to 228k, the lowest in two months, significantly below market expectations of 242k. Results further underscore the stubborn tightness of the US labour market. US existing home sales fell 13.3% to a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.1m units in June, the lowest level in five months, missing expectations of 4.2m. Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index flat, little changed at -13.5 in July from -13.7 in June, worse than expectations of -10.

European markets are higher, with FTSE 100 +0.82%, DAX +0.58%, CAC40 +0.82% STOXX 600 +0.44%. Asian markets are broadly down. China’s markets hit hardest as China's pledge to support private businesses failed to excite markets. Hang Seng -0.13%, Shanghai -0.92%, Shenzhen -1.06%, ChiNext -0.99%.

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