Wall Street erased the gains recorded at the start of the session. The Nasdaq index gained 0.12%, while the S&P500 lost 0.28%, the Dow Jones 0.55% and the Russell 2000 lost more than 0.67%.
According to the Washington Post, the U.S. government has notified Fed employees that a suspension of operations appears imminent, as the Biden administration begins the formal process of preparing much of Washington for a halt in business on Sunday.
With the upcoming release (Sunday, October 31) of Tesla's (TSLA.US) Q3 car shipments data, Piper Sandler has lowered its Q3 forecast by more than 10% from 515,000 previously to 445,000.
Investors' attention during today's US trading session turned to Nike (NKE.US), which gained more than 7% following the release of its results.
Initial gains also seemed to be fuelled by new UoM data. While the economic data came out generally very upbeat - the better for the markets was the significant drop in inflation expectations from the previous reading.
The most important macro reading of today's session was the PCE inflation and income spending data of Americans. In the main, the readings fell in line with market expectations with only minor deviations in the MoM and private consumption data.
Inflation in the Eurozone is falling harder than expected, further reducing the chances of another hike by the ECB.
According to preliminary data, the British economy expanded at a rate of 0.2% quarter-on-quarter and 0.4% year-on-year between April and June 2023. Revised data released today confirmed the 0.2% quarter-on-quarter expansion, but the year-on-year figures were revised upward to 0.6% y/y.
Precious metals are trading under selling pressure, with silver contracts retreating from a near 3.8% gain and currently losing 1.7%. Gold is losing 0.8%.
Deteriorating market sentiment has also affected the price of WTI crude oil, which is currently losing nearly 1.44% on an intraday basis.
At the moment, the best performing currency on FX market is NZD; the worst performing is CAD.
