U.S. stocks posted healthy gains this morning amid rising expectations for a U.S.-China trade deal. Bloomberg reports “The S&P 500 took out its July record after President Donald Trump said the U.S. is ahead of schedule to sign part of the trade deal.”
Commodities weren’t faring nearly as well, with the major commodity indexes up around 0.1% this morning following reports of falling profits at Chinese industrial companies and weaker Chinese producer prices, Reuters reports. In London, LME 3-mo. copper and aluminum were holding on to modest gains around $5,910/mt and $1,736/mt, respectively, while 3-mo. nickel dropped to around $16,720/mt. In New York, COMEX copper futures were little changed around $2.68 per pound while NYMEX crude oil futures rebounded to $56.70 per barrel. In foreign exchange trading, the euro was buying $1.088 while the British pound edged up to $1.286 as the EU reportedly extended the Brexit deadline until Jan. 31.
