European and U.S. stock markets open in July

The U.S. again came out with positive economic data: the number of first-time jobless claims last week was much lower than expected, hitting a new low since the outbreak of the epidemic; the ISM manufacturing index in June was slightly lower than in May and still exceeded 60, maintaining a steady expansion. U.S. stocks growth stocks to value stocks rotation, in addition to technology stocks in the IT sector, other sectors rose during the day, led by the energy sector supported by higher crude oil, strong support for the S&P to set new highs, small-cap stocks again after a week ahead of the broader market; European stocks also rallied led by energy stocks, in addition to technology, all sectors rose, giving a good start to July, the third quarter and the second half of the year.

Auto stocks were down intraday, with Toyota and GM both reporting year-over-year surges in U.S. sales in the second quarter, still slightly below industry expectations, highlighting the limits on sales from tight inventories in a chip-starved environment. Peng Auto, which reported record second-quarter deliveries and a 439% year-over-year jump, jumped 8% in early trading before turning lower at midday.

Among Chinese stocks, Drip (DIDI), which went public on Wednesday, opened higher the following day after two major index providers MSCI and FTSE Russell announced the inclusion of Drip U.S. shares in their respective indexes, having risen nearly 17 percent during the session. Dingtone Grocery (DDL), on the other hand, which had risen more than 95% intraday the day after it went public on Wednesday, fell back significantly, turning lower early in the session and once falling nearly 21% intraday. Earlier comments suggested that Dingtone’s ticker symbol was similar to that of DDT, and that Wednesday’s spike was probably a result of retailer confusion. In other words, Dingtone was tainted by the drops.

The price input index for the U.S. ISM manufacturing sector hit a nearly 42-year high in June since 1979, with the dollar index and 10-year U.S. bond yields both shaking higher as the dollar set a nearly three-month high and U.S. bond yields said goodbye to a more than week-long low. Cryptocurrencies sank further as U.S. oil strengthened, with one-hit wonder Ether leading the decline on Wednesday and Bitcoin once falling below $33,000.

Among commodities, crude oil hit another new high of more than two-and-a-half years in less than a week, thanks to OPEC+’s ministerial oversight committee recommending a gradual increase in production in the second five months of the year, with 400,000 bpd per month from August to December, down from the 500,000 bpd per month increase implied by previous media sources, and extending the deal to cut production until the end of next year. But late in the day media said the OPEC+ meeting to discuss oil production policy was postponed until this Friday because the UAE opposed the proposal, and the UAE wants to change the benchmark for the country’s limit on the production cut agreement so it can increase its own production by 700,000 bpd. Crude oil has since fallen off its intraday high, with U.S. oil still closing at a new high, closing above $75 for the first time in more than two and a half years.

Industrial metals mostly continued to fall as inflation concerns and the new crown epidemic hurt manufacturing in parts of Asia, with copper hitting another one-week low. Precious metals were mixed, with silver retreating and gold continuing to rally, spurred by comments that there was opportunity-seeking buying, but the overall pressure from a stronger dollar limited gold’s gains even after back-to-back days of gains.

S&P makes six-day streak of record highs IT sector lone intraday fall DDT high on next day of listing Dingdong Buyer plunges on third day of listing

The three major U.S. stock indexes opened collectively higher, with the Nasdaq Composite Index, which turned down more than once in early trading, performing the worst, along with the two major technology stocks Apple and Microsoft turned up at midday, the Nasdaq barely retained its gains at midday. S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average continued to move up, the S&P ended the fifth consecutive day of new intraday highs when up more than 0.5%, the Dow lunchtime hit a new intraday high since June 10 when up nearly 140 points.

Finally, the three major indices closed up collectively for the third day this week, the S&P and the Dow rose for six days and three days, respectively. The S&P closed up 0.52% at 4319.94 points, closing at a record high for the sixth consecutive day, the longest record-breaking day in history. The Dow closed up 131.02 points, or 0.38%, at 34,633.53 points, a new record closing high since June 4. The Nasdaq closed up 0.13 percent at 14,522.38, nearing the record high set on Tuesday.

The value-cap-dominated small-cap index Russell 2000 closed up 0.81%, leading the three major stock indexes for the first time since last Thursday, June 24. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index edged up 0.04 percent.

Among the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500, only one sector, information technology, fell during the session, and the sector finally turned up at midday, eventually closing up 0.1%. In addition to information technology, other sectors rose at least 0.3%, energy closed up more than 1.7% to lead the rise, followed by more than 1.1% of utilities, health care and telecommunications services rose about 0.9%.

FAANMG six major technology stocks mostly closed up, Facebook rose more than 1.9%, Nifty rose 1%, with the tail end of the turn up closing Microsoft and Apple rose nearly 0.3% and more than 0.2%, the midday turn up Google parent company Alphabet rose nearly 0.3%, Amazon fell more than 0.2%. Chip stocks in general fell, Micron Technology fell more than 5%, Applied Materials fell more than 3%, the semiconductor sector ETF SOXX fell more than 1%.

Energy stocks rose in general, Marathon Oil rose nearly 4%, PetroChina rose more than 3%, the only energy component of the Dow Chevron rose more than 1%. Airline stocks rose, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue Airways rose 2%, American Airlines, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines rose more than 1%.

Most of the auto stocks closed lower, traditional auto stocks, General Motors fell more than 0.1%; Ford rose 0.4%, Toyota U.S. shares rose nearly 0.4%, Honda U.S. shares rose more than 0.3%; new energy auto stocks, Azera car fell more than 4%, Xiaopeng car fell 1.7%, ideal car fell more than 0.7%, Tesla fell nearly 0.3%.

Most of the popular Chinese stocks fell, Chinese ETF KWEB and CQQQ fell more than 2% and 1% respectively, but the first day of listing soared 400% Pupu culture closed up nearly 98% the next day, dropping up about 16%. Among other stocks, Dingdong buy food fell nearly 15%, Tucson Future fell more than 11%, Futu Securities and Tiger Securities fell more than 9%, Jingdong fell nearly 3%, Alibaba fell more than 2%, Baidu fell more than 1% and Tencent ADR fell more than 0.7%.

In Europe, the pan-European stock index Euro Stoxx 600 erased most of Wednesday’s losses, shaking off the trough hit on Wednesday since June 4, with major European stock indexes rebounding across the board on Thursday. The sectors, only down nearly 0.7% on Thursday, technology a closed lower, up 2.05% oil and gas hit the largest one-month gain, the top gainer, followed by a 1.9% rise in travel and leisure, the sector ended a four-day losing streak.

U.S. oil fell more than two and a half years intraday highs still this week for the first time to close at a new high of more than two and a half days Natural gas three days in a row to a new high of two and a half years

International crude oil futures rose for three days in a row, hitting new highs in more than two and a half years again this week since Friday. U.S. WTI crude oil had risen above $76.20 in early U.S. trading, hitting a new intraday high since October 2018, with a maximum intraday gain of more than 3.7%, and Brent crude oil rose above $76.70 at the same time, also hitting a new high since October 2018, with an intraday gain of more than 2.8%, both retracing some of their gains at lunchtime.

Finally, the WTI crude oil futures August contract closed up 2.40% to close at $75.23/barrel, the first time since October 3, 2018 that month contract closed above $75; Brent crude oil futures September contract closed up 1.63% to close at $75.84/barrel, approaching a new closing high for that month contract since October 29, 2018 set by the rise above $76 on Friday.

U.S. gasoline and natural gas futures continued to rise. nymex August gasoline futures closed up 1.2% at $2.2676/gallon. nymex August natural gas futures closed up 0.3% at $3.662 per million British thermal units, a third consecutive day of new closing highs since December 2018.

The dollar index hit a near three-month high, bitcoin fell below $33,000 intraday, and ethereum fell 10% at one point

The ICE US Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the exchange rate of a basket of six major currencies of the US dollar, had turned lower during the European session, and US stocks once fell below 92.30 to refresh the daily low before the market, down nearly 0.19% during the day, and continued to rebound after the US stock market opened, turning up in the morning session and approaching 92.60 at lunchtime, hitting a new intraday high for the second consecutive day since early April, up 0.16% during the day.

By Thursday’s U.S. stock market close, the dollar index was above 92.50, up more than 0.1% intraday; the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.3%.

Bitcoin (BTC) continued Wednesday’s decline, falling below $33,000 at midday on U.S. stocks, dropping as low as $32,700 to set a new intraday low for the week, down more than $2,000 from the early Asian intraday high, a percentage drop of more than 7%, and closing above $33,000 on U.S. stocks, down more than 4% in the last 24 hours.

Ether (ETH), the second largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin in terms of market capitalization, fell below $2,100 at midday in the U.S. stock market to refresh its daily low, down about 10% from its intraday high in early Asian trading, and closed above $2,100 in the U.S. stock market, down more than 6% in 24 hours, and at the bottom of the intraday performance in mainstream cryptocurrencies.

CoinMarketCap data shows that mainstream cryptocurrencies continued to fall on Thursday, with ETH down more than 6.7% by the close of the U.S. stock market, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), the 12th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, down more than 5% in the last 24 hours, and the fourth, fifth, seventh and 14th largest cryptocurrencies, BNB, Cardano (ADA), Ripple (XRP) and Litecoin (LTC) are down more than 4%, while the sixth largest cryptocurrency, Dogecoin (DOGE), is down more than 3.7%.

Copper hit a one-week low for the second time this week, with gold’s two consecutive positives further off a two-and-a-half month low

London base metals futures were mostly lower on Thursday. LunCu, which just rebounded on Wednesday, fell back to $9,322/mt, following Tuesday’s record low since last Tuesday and closing below $9,400 for the fourth consecutive day. Zinc ended a two-day streak of gains and fell off a two-week high. LEN aluminum, LEN lead and LEN nickel fell for two days in a row, with LEN lead and LEN aluminum falling further off their three-year or so highs and LEN nickel hitting another one-week low. However, LUN tin rebounded and moved closer to the two-week highs set on Tuesday.

New York gold futures continued to rally slightly, with COMEX August gold futures closing up $5.2, or 0.29%, at $1,776.8, further off the main contract closing lows set on Tuesday since April 14.

New York silver futures, which had just rallied on Wednesday, fell back again, with COMEX September silver futures closing down 0.36%. Platinum rose for the second day in a row, with NYMEX October platinum futures closing up 0.7%. Palladium retreated, with NYMEX September palladium futures closing down 0.4%, falling off the highs set on Wednesday since June 16.

European bonds retreated slightly 10-year U.S. bond yields off more than one-week lows

European Treasuries retreated in price on Thursday, with yields rising slightly. The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.K. government bond rose 1 basis point to 0.73% during the day; the yield on the German government bond also rose 1 basis point to -0.20% during the same period.

U.S. 10-year benchmark Treasury yields in the European stock market, U.S. stocks turned down before the market, U.S. stocks quickly regained 1.47% in early trading to turn up, once rose to 1.48% in early trading to refresh the daily high, from Wednesday fell to 1.44% below the intraday trough set since June 21, to the U.S. stocks closed nearly 1.47%, roughly the same level as Wednesday’s closing. U.S. bonds of all maturities were slightly volatile on Thursday.