The market sentiment generally looks neither bearish, nor bullish ahead of the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee's (FOMC) message. It is still rather neutral but nervous, as investors are preparing to interpret the statement of the world's most influential financial regulator via its updated interest rate and economic projections. A rate hike pause on September 20 may seem to be a done deal. However, the essence of the Federal Reserve's (Fed) forecast for the near future may shake the foundations of the “Fed almost done” pillar, which was at the heart of the summer rally.
British Petroleum (BP), Exxon Mobil (XOM), Chevron (CVX) and other oil industry leaders’ stock prices hit their highs since the end of April. This happened in the first days of autumn as a response to Russia's intentions to extend its export cuts by 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) in September, following 500,000 bpd production cuts that are valid throughout the end of 2023. Its deputy prime minister alexander Novak said the move was coordinated with Saudi Arabia and other members of the OPEC+ informal community of oil exporting countries.
Cooling of labour demand in America has become evident from the recent incoming data in the United States. Ironically, softer than expected data became a real pain-killer for the market sentiment, as it revitalised some faded crowd's expectations for the Federal Reserve (Fed) to make an extended rest stop in its rate-hiking cycle this autumn and winter.
Stocks related to artificial intelligence (AI) and certain other tech behemoths formed a separate group of issuers, which are performing a rebound this week. And not even all potential candidates participated in that drastic leap. For the most part, a narrow band of market heroes like Microsoft and Tesla. On the contrary, those giants who have recently taken off well due to successful quarterly reports, like Google and Amazon, joined the general correction of Wall Street making the S&P 500 broad barometer testing its lower levels between 4,350 and 4,400.
As at the end
of the first week of August, 79.1% of the 422 companies in the S&P 500 index
broad list have already reported for Q2 2023, showed their earnings above
consensus, according to Refinitiv. To compare, a long-term average is 66.4%,
and an average for the recent four quarters was 73.4%. This could be a cause
for steady optimism if not a series of warnings from many companies on
potentially worse second half of the year. Only 59% of firms exceeded Wall
Street's revenue forecasts, being the lowest percentage level in three years,
while earnings growth is negative at -4.
Sudden news
of downgrading the U.S. sovereign credit rating by Fitch dumped all the recent
bullish enthusiasm in global markets. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen made an
effort to defend by calling it an "entirely unwarranted" move. She
was referring to "ignored improvements in governance metrics" during
the current administration and the country's economic strength, as the agency's
"flawed assessment" did not take into account "a resilient U.S.
economy, with low unemployment, falling inflation, continued growth and strong
innovation".
Gold prices
are gaining momentum since mid-July on speculations of a highly likely choice
of the Federal Reserve (Fed) to stop an unprecedented cycle of interest rate hikes
after July.
The U.S. Dollar is the main loser in that context, while its rival currencies
including Euro, Swiss Franc, the Pound and Japanese Yen are enjoying its
weakness. Major currency pairs are moving rapidly covering a distance in days that
would be usually appropriate to cover in a three or five weeks. This led the
U.S. Dollar index to post its 15-month lows, testing a 99.25-99.45 area.
European
currencies are rallying, rubbing shoulders with other U.S. Dollar competitors,
as the whole set of inflation data from America stressed the Fed may be within
an ace of letting the borrowing costs to a halt. Consumer price pressure is at its
weakest since April 21, confirmed with producer price declining on factory
gates from 6.0% YoY in the beginning of the year to 2.3% YoY in May, 1.1% in
June, according to this week's samplings by the U.S. Bureau of Labour
Statistics.
The headline inflation
is at 3.0%, compared to 4.0% a month ago.
Three of the
Federal Reserve (Fed) speakers on the same day clearly expressed moderate rhetoric
to scale back their usually hawkish stance, stirring up hopes that the financial
regulator may finish its cloying campaign of interest rate hikes rather sooner
than later. Another 0.25% upside move will highly likely follow on July 27,
with nearly 95% of investors in Fed fund rate futures currently betting on it.
This hike is mostly priced-in on Wall Street stocks.
The U.S.
Dollar index (DXY) is moving mixed inside the narrow trading range of
102.4-103.2 points. Investors are waiting got the Federal Reserve (Fed) to
raise its interest rates to 5.5% in July from the current 5.25%. FOMC Minutes
that were released this week confirmed that. On the other side, inflation is
slowing down above expectations, which is positive for risky assets.
Positive
ADP Non-Farm Employment Change at 497,000 is clearly beating the forecasted
228,000 and is ahead of the previous 267,000. Continuing jobless claims were
also down to 1720,000 from 1733,000 a week ago.