Asia Morning July 20

Asia Morning: U.S. Stocks Mixed as Pandemic Keeps Exploding

On Friday, U.S. stocks closed mixed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down for a second session easing 62 points (-0.23%) to 26671. The S&P 500 added 9 points (+0.28%) to 3224, and the Nasdaq 100 was up 18 points (+0.18%) to 10645.

Dow Jones Industrial Average Index: Daily Chart

Source: GAIN Capital, TradingView

Utilities (+2.28%), Health Care Equipment & Services (+1.81%) and Real Estate (+1.4%) sectors performed the best, while Banks (-2.32%), Energy (-1.52%) and Automobiles & Components (-1.02%) sectors were laggards. BlackRock (BLK +3.66%) jumped on better-than-expected earnings and assets under management. Netflix (NFLX -6.52%) fell on downbeat results.

On the technical side, about 52.2% (52.0% in the prior session) of stocks in the S&P 500 Index were trading above their 200-day moving average, and 80.4% (82.8% in the prior session) were trading above their 20-day moving average.

U.S. official data showed that Housing Starts rose to an annualized rate of 1.186 million units in June (1.190 million units expected). The University of Michigan's Consumer Sentiment Index (preliminary reading) unexpectedly fell to 73.2 in July (79.0 expected).

Meanwhile, the coronavirus pandemic keeps exploding across the world. The number of confirmed virus deaths has exceeded 600,000 globally, and topped 140,000 in the U.S.

European stocks also ended mixed. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.16%. Germany's DAX 30 gained 0.35%, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 rose 0.63%, while France's CAC 40 was down 0.31%.

The benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yield sank climbed to 0.628% from 0.614% Thursday.

Spot gold price rebounded $12.00 (+0.7%) to $1,810 an ounce.

U.S. WTI crude oil futures (August) slipped 0.4% to $40.59 a barrel.

On the forex front, the U.S. dollar weakened against its major peers, with the ICE Dollar Index dropping 0.3% on day to 96.01.

EUR/USD climbed 0.4% to 1.1428. It is reported that the European Union leaders were yet to agree on the size of a stimulus package, where oppositions led by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte demanded a substantially less figure.

GBP/USD gained 0.1% to 1.2567.

USD/JPY fell 0.3% to 107.00. This morning, government data showed that Japan's exports plunged 26.2% on year in June (-24.7% expected) and imports slid 14.4% (-17.6% expected).

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