Today there is relatively little to excite investors in terms of fundamental reports. The most interesting publication will be the retail sales data for April, followed by the Michigan consumer sentiment survey for May.
Retail sales are expected to have only grown by 1% last month, noticeably lower than they did in March. If the number proves to be higher than expected, it will confirm some of investors’ worries about the US economy recovering way faster than anticipated, already partially suggested by high inflation rate data published earlier this week.
In addition, the European Central Bank will publish the details from its latest policy meeting today, which may offer insight into what the ECB might be planning to discuss at its next meeting.
Today is also an interesting day for commodities. On the one hand, Colonial Pipeline Company seems to be past the worst of the cyberattack it experienced and has resumed the supply of fuel to much of the United States East Coast regions. The CPC pipelines carry mainly diesel and gasoline, which can both appreciate in price now that the supply interruption has been resolved.
On the other hand, the United States is now dealing with another commodity shortage, this time of agricultural goods, mainly wheat, soybeans, and corn. This issue is caused by a problem with the supply route via the Mississippi river, where a crucial bridge is closed for emergency repairs. Agricultural commodities will rise in value today due to the limited supply.
US stock indices today are set to recover some of their lost ground, but will still end the week on a worse note than seven days ago. They were negatively affected by the high inflation reports and might experience another blow when the retail sales data drops.
In the cryptocurrency market, Elon Musk’s beloved Dogecoin appears to be making steady gains on the back of Tesla’s CEO’s criticism of Bitcoin earlier this week. Reportedly, Musk is willing to help Dogecoin founders find eco-friendly solutions when it comes to mining and transaction processing, which is a problem area for Bitcoin and the reason why Musk withdrew his support for the biggest cryptocurrency in the world a few days ago. For all it’s worth, though, Bitcoin has also recovered some of its losses already.
