Market wrap: a sluggish tone to markets - Westpac

Analysts at Westpac offered a market wrap.

Key Quotes:

"Global market sentiment: A rather sluggish tone to markets saw stocks slowly give up early gains. The main interest into EU trading was the leap higher in industrial bulks in China. Bulks continued to rise, but the earlier drift in the oil complex from initial gains gathered some pace into US trading with WTI down almost 1% lower on the day at USD49.25.

Interest rates: US 10yr treasury yields gyrated tightly around 2.29% in a calm day with little curve action seeing 2yr yields steady at 1.35% and minimal changes in Fed Fund futures. Political tensions had little impact as markets await the pick-up in data releases into Friday’s NFP.

Currencies: The slip in oil appeared to be the driver of CAD being the weakest G10 currency (USD/CAD pushed above 1.2500). Other majors were treading water until end month/fixing interest caused USD to slide in late EU trading causing EUR/USD to push to 1.1800, GBP/USD 1.3200 and USD/JPY to slip below 110.50. Despite firm bulks, commodity currencies underperformed in quiet trading with AUD and NZD struggling despite the late USD slip."