After the Columbus Day holiday, the markets are fully operational, and the attention is equity-based, with record highs reached on Wall Street fueled by technology shares. The Nasdaq 100 added 0.8%, closing at 18,502. Nvidia Corp led gains in the megacaps, Apple Inc. gained on a bullish analyst call, and Tesla Inc. rebounded after last week’s plunge. Later today, we have earnings results from Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Citigroup.
Domestically, GBP is under pressure after Rachel Reeves said she would not be able to invest as much as she would like in the National Wealth Fund. EUR/USD sits close to the 200-day moving average at 1.0875, and the dollar is outperforming, which aligns with the historical fact that the USD strengthens in the run-up to the US presidential election—and this still seems to be the case. Other market movers include Bitcoin, which rose 5% on Monday, buoyed by growing indications that the US regulatory outlook for the cryptocurrency sector will improve after the upcoming presidential election.
In other markets, US 10-year Treasuries opened at 4.09%, Ether fell 0.4% to $2,609.43, oil dropped as concerns eased about Israel attacking Iranian energy facilities, West Texas Intermediate crude fell 3.5% to $71.25 a barrel, and spot gold fell 0.2% to $2,642.19 an ounce. As for the day ahead, it is mainly about speeches; we hear from the Fed’s Mary Daly and Adriana Kugler, and we have the ZEW Survey out of Germany and Canadian CPI.