Stimulus package is coming! But when and how much?

Every market that we follow had plenty of selling. That being said though, equities have had a nice run in general over the last several weeks, so it makes sense that we give up some of the gains in order to do a little profit-taking. The FTSE 100 was down 4/10 of a per cent, while the DAX was down 29 basis points. The Parisian index was down over half a per cent, while Japan was down 70 basis points. At midday in the United States, the S&P 500 has taken its clue from various indices around the world, shedding half of a per cent.

Forex markets continue to be very choppy and back and forth but very dollar positive, as the Euro is essentially unchanged, while the US dollar has gained against the Japanese yen to the tune of one-third of a per cent. The Australian dollar has lost 63 basis points, while the British pound has lost roughly half of a per cent. Ultimately, there are a lot of questions about stimulus in the United States, and this has been bringing a little bit of a bullish factor for the greenback.

Commodity traders sold off everything that we follow during the Friday session. Gold lost 66 basis points, silver lost 1 1/3% during the day, while Brent has lost 1%. Platinum was down 1.4%, and copper lost 70 basis points, but still remains one of the better performing commodity markets that we follow. In the US dollar positive environment, that continues to weigh upon commodities, but they are bullish when looked at from a longer-term perspective.