Today the economic calendar will once more be relatively light. The most important publications of the day include the June durable goods orders and the July consumer confidence index from the United States.
The Federal Reserve is starting its July monetary policy meeting today. Tapering of asset purchases at this time is not likely, but the Fed may issue a warning that such a hawkish move is currently in the works and may come in the second half of the year. Chairman Jerome Powell at his recent testimonies promised that the central bank would give an early warning when tapering was about to come, so this may be it.
US stock indices today will be quite muted due to the Fed meeting and its unpredictable outcome for now. Modest losses are the most likely scenario for today.
Still, the US tech sector is worthy of traders’ attention today. Tesla reported amazing profits during Q2 yesterday, which pleased investors, and today we are going to hear from Apple, Microsoft, and Google (Alphabet).
Chinese stocks are also quite depressed today, way more so than US indices. There has been no additional news on the Chinese government’s actions to control tech companies in China, but rumor has it that international investors, especially those from the United States, are pulling away from Chinese businesses. Huge market crashes are what’s happening right now in both mainland China and Hong Kong.
Furthermore, as we wrote a few days ago, coffee remains an extremely attractive commodity to invest in. There has been news that Brazil is to experience yet another cold snap, which is going to damage the 2022 crops further. Coffee futures have climbed to seven-year highs.
Another commodity that traders follow closely is, of course, crude oil, which is on the downturn again. Oil is currently pressured by rising concerns about the spread of the delta variant of Covid-19, which officially caused the highest number of daily infections in the United States since this winter yesterday, mostly in states with low vaccination rates.
Brent crude slid to $73.86, while the WTI brand fell to $71.94 per barrel.
