Global Financial Market Overview

Dow Jones still closed higher on August 6, 2018, supported by strong business operation from various listed companies, especially tech segments and their consumers. While the worries of trade war between China and Iran’s sanction by the U.S. held the market to increase only for a small margin.

Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 25,502.18, up 39.60 (+0.16%)

S&P Index closed at 2,850.40, up 10.05 (+0.35%)

Nasdaq Composite closed at 7,859.68, up 47.66 (+0.61%)

 

The U.S. trade war with China and Iran’s sanction caused European stock markets to closed lower, while the financial statement of listed companies kept fluctuating.

Stoxx Europe 600 closed at 388.66 fell 0.1%

Germany’s DAX Performance Index closed at 12,598.21, fell 17.55 (-0.14%)

France’s CAC 40 Index closed at 5,477.18, fell 1.80 (-0.03%)

London’s FTSE 100 closed at 7,663.78, up 4.68 (+0.06%)

 

Asian shares closed mixed on Monday, paring gains seen earlier as trade returned to the fore after another set of tariffs on U.S. goods were announced by China.

The Nikkei 225 pared moderate gains seen earlier to close lower by 0.08 percent, or 17.86 points, at 22,507.32. Gains in the iron and steel as well as telecommunications sectors were offset by declines in most other sectors, including banks and miscellaneous product makers.   

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index rose 0.52 percent or 143.24 points to finish  at 27819.56 after closing lower for the past five straight sessions. The advance was led by conglomerates before the market close while overall gains were capped by falls in materials and services.

Mainland Chinese stocks led losses in the region, with indexes steepening losses in the afternoon. The Shanghai Composite declined 1.26 percent to close at 2,705.84 and the smaller Shenzhen Composite lost 2.08 percent.

Singapore’s shares closed 0.6 per cent higher, with the Straits Times Index up 19.61 points to 3,285.34 points The most actively traded stock was Genting Singapore, which closed S$0.1 or 8.1 per cent down at S$1.13 with 81.4 million shares changing hands.Other actives included ThaiBev and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding.

 

New York gold future fell from strengthen dollars and investors were keeping an eye on Iran’s sanction.

COMEX went down 5.50 USD or 0.45% for December delivery to close at 1,217.70 USD/ounce

Platinum for October fell 10.6 USD or 1.27% to close at 826.30 USD/ounce

Palladium for September fell 4.30 USD or almost 0.5% to close at 903.60 USD/ounce

 

WTI crude closed higher after the news of Saudi Arabia had lowered their oil production in July, and Iran’s sanction. While most investors were waiting for the announcement of U.S. weekly petroleum status report.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for September delivery were up by 52 cent or 0.8% to close at 69.01 USD/bbl

Brent crude for October delivery fell 54 cent or 0.7% to close at 73.75 USD/bbl

 

United States Dollars were strengthen as safe asset for investors who were worried of Iran’s sanction. Investors also keeping an eye on inflation status will be announced by the U.S. government this week, as well as a report of unemployed fringe benefits. England’s Pound went down after when Brexit remained the problem.

USD was stronger against JPY from 111.23 JPY to trade at 111.39 JPY, and also stronger against Swiss Franc from 0.9940 SFR to 0.9963 SFR.

Euro was weakened to trade at 1.1553  USD from 1.1664 USD.

Pound was weakened to trade at 1.2943 USD from 1.3009 USD, while AUD also weaken to close at 0.7389 USD from 0.7404 USD.