Daily Headline News

Stock index futures are currently pointing in different directions before today's US retail sales report. Wall Street recorded strong gains on Thursday. Tesla's stock price rose 2.97% as Morgan Stanley reiterated its "overweight" rating on the stock. Amazon's stock price rose 4.67% on Thursday, outperforming the market, while Amazon provided free access to its artificial intelligence coding assistant to weaken Microsoft.

The weakening of the US dollar is intact now. This real-time US dollar index data shows that the ICE US dollar index, which measures the strength of the US dollar against a basket of six competing currencies, fell 0.6% on Thursday as the Labor Department data showed that the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits last week was higher than expected, while their numbers increased.

The dual euro/dollar and pound/dollar narrowed and climbed on Thursday, while the Eurostat reported stronger than expected industrial production growth in the eurozone in February. Currently, both the euro and the pound have risen against the US dollar. The US dollar/Japanese yen continued to slide, while the Australian dollar/US dollar accelerated its rise yesterday. Currently, the Japanese yen has not changed much against the US dollar, and the Australian dollar has declined.

US stock index futures are currently down. Before the release of retail sales report for March at 14:30 CET today, the yield of benchmark 10-year US treasury bond bonds fell to 3.441%. The three major stock benchmarks recorded gains of 1.1% to 2.0% on Thursday, led by technology stocks, as data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that producer price growth slowed more than expected in March, reigniting speculation that the Federal Reserve may suspend its interest rate hike cycle.

The European stock index is currently mixed, with home appliance stocks leading gains after closing higher on Thursday. Asian stock index futures saw mixed gains today, with all Australian common stock indices leading the way in terms of returns.

Brent is expanding his losses today. Yesterday, oil prices fell after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) emphasized the downside risk of summer oil demand in its monthly report, citing increased inventory and challenges to global growth. However, OPEC maintains its forecast for global oil demand growth in 2023. The US oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell 1.3% and is currently relatively low. Brent crude oil fell 1.4% to $86.09 per barrel on Thursday.

Gold slightly declined today. Spot gold rose 1.28% on Thursday to $2040.27 per ounce.