US stocks choppy in a low volatility session ahead of pivotal CPI and FOMC minutes

US equities traded in tight ranges in a low volume session as traders remained cautious ahead of Wednesdays pivotal CPI figure out the US, followed by the release of FOMC minutes a few hours later.

Major indices eventually finished mixed with the defensive Dow and recently battered Russell 2000 finishing in the green, whilst the S&P500 and Nasdaq  finished down as Tech stocks underperformed, with selling in cloud titans Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), and Google (GOOGL) after a UBS note saying street estimates for the sector are too high ahead of earnings.

Forex markets saw the USD give back some of its post NFP gains , with the US Dollar Index falling to 102 before finding support and a small late session bounce.

Rising yields in the Eurozone saw the EURUSD regain the psychological 1.09 level and find support there, the GBPUSD had similar price action with the big 1..24 level, moving above and holding it as support.

Anitpodeans saw the AUD outperform, making gains against the Greenback and reclaiming 0.6650 after a strong beat in Australian consumer sentiment and rises in the NAB business confidence data. whilst the NZDUSD dropped below 0.62, AUDNZD surged past the 1.07, again showing that there is good value in this pair under that level.

The Yen also saw losses against the USD as yield differentials again were the main driver,  the USDJPY pressing on the upper range and testing resistance at the top of its rising triangle pattern.

The battle of 2000 for Gold continued with XAUUSD regaining and whipsawing around that level as a weaker Dollar gave Gold price support, and rising bond yields caused a headwind for the precious metal. Though attention is starting to be focussed on Silver rising pretty much every day for the past month and seeing the Gold/Silver ratio drop below 80 for the first time since February

The Economic calendar really ramps up today after a slow start to the week with there not much chance we’re going to get another low volatility day today.

US CPI will start the show, with the markets still split on the result of the May FOMC meeting this figure will be closely watched and should see some nice moves in risk markets. We also have a Bank of Canada interest rate decision, followed by the release of the FOMC meeting minutes from their March meeting as the other main risk events.