Markets rise as some virus lockdowns eased

The Dollar weakening accelerated today as former Minnesota Federal Reserve President Kocherlakota said over weekend Federal Reserve should take interest rates below zero for the first time ever. The live dollar index data show the ICE US Dollar index, a measure of the dollar’s strength against a basket of six rival currencies, lost 0.2% Friday as US orders for durable goods slumped 14.4% in March. The EUR/USD joined GBP/USD’s continued rising Friday with both pairs higher currently. AUD/USD continued climbing Friday while USD/JPY continued sliding with the dynamics intact for both pairs currently.

Futures on three main US stock indexes are higher currently after the Friday rebound. Investors are trying to gauge the possible path of US economy with mixed corporate results and weak data checking traders’ risk appetite. 3 million Americans are skipping mortgage payments and millions of credit card customers can’t pay their bills and lenders are bracing for the impact while Georgia, Oklahoma and Alaska began loosening coronavirus lockdown orders. US economy faces historic shock with 16% joblessness possible, Trump adviser said Sunday. More companies including United Technologies, Honeywell and Boeing will report quarterly results today. Stock indexes in US ended higher on Friday : the three main US stock indexes recorded gains ranging from 1.1% to 1.6% led by technology shares. European stock indexes ended lower Friday but are rising currently as European governments ease lockdowns. Germany is slowly reopening, Spain relaxed lockdown after seven weeks of home confinement. Asian indexes are solidly higher today after Bank of Japan said it will buy an additional 15 trillion yen ($140 billion) of government bonds, commercial paper and bank loans : Nikkei jumped 2.7%, leading the general trend.

Brent is adding to Friday’s losses today on signs that worldwide oil storage is filling rapidly. Oil prices ended mixed last session. The US oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures ended higher Friday: June WTI gained 2.7% but is falling currently. June Brent crude closed 0.5% lower at $21.44 a barrel on Friday, booking a 23.7% loss for the week.

Gold prices are edging higher today. June gold lost 0.6% to $1735.60 an ounce on Friday.