The EUR is the strongest and the AUD is the weakest as NA traders enter for the day

The EUR is the strongest and the and the AUD is the weakest as the North American session begins. The bond market has calmed down after first Brainard’s hawkish comments on Tuesday, and then the Fed minutes yesterday that indicated the Fed was closer to raise about 50 basis points at the last meeting, and and the finger on the trigger for tapering at the next meeting by some $95 billion.

Meanwhile in China, lockdown has slowed their economy and that may lead to a easing of monetary policy. Shanghai remained under lockdown with a record 20,000 new infections reported despite the measures taken.

US stocks are mixed with the Dow down marginally and the NASDAQ up. The S&P is marginally higher.

US yields are mixed with the yield curve steepening up to 15 basis points in the 2 – 10 year spread. French issued a 10 year bond at 1.17% up from 0.52% last. French yields have been rising as Macron’s lead over Le Pen has narrowed. The 10 year spread between France and German yields has risen to as high as 55 basis points (currently at 53.6 basis points) from 40 basis points on March 30.

The Fedspeak will continue today with Feds Williams, Fed’s Evans and Feds Bostic oil scheduled to speak. It looks like Bullard may also be speaking today.

In Europe, German industrial production came in marginally higher at 0.2% versus 0.1% estimate. That is slower than the 1.4% in the prior month. EU retail sales came in weaker than expected 0.3% versus 0.6% estimate

The weekly initial claims data are expected to continue to show layoffs running near historically low levels at 200,000. The yield curve has yield curve has steepened trading

A snapshot of the markets as North American traders enter for the day shows:

• Spot gold is trading up $7.30 or 0.38% at $1930.82
• Spot silver is trading up five cents or 0.17% at $24.47
• Spot crude oil is trading up to dollars and $0.38 or 2.46% at $98.58
• Bitcoin is trading at $43,705 up about $500 on the day

The major US stock  indices 
Indices

Stock market indices represents an index that measures a particular stock market or a segment of the stock market. These instruments are important investors as they help compare current price levels with past prices to calculate market performance.The main two parameters for indices are that they are both investable and transparent. For example, investors can invest in a stock market index by buying an index fund, which is structured as either a mutual fund or an exchange-traded fund, and track an index. The difference between an index fund’s performance and the index, if any, is called tracking error. Most major countries boast multiple indices. Commonly traded indices include the S&P 500, NASDAQ-100, Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIJA), EURO STOXX 50, Hang Seng Index, and many more.Stock market indices can be characterized or segmented by the index coverage set of stocks. The overall coverage of an index constitutes an underlying group of stocks, most commonly grouped together by underlying investor demand.How to Trade IndicesRetail brokers offer indices exposure through the use of contracts-for-difference (CFDs) or exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Each are popular ways to trade specific markets and are almost always on offer at most brokers.Investors can choose between multiple types of indices that traditionally fall within several categories. This includes country coverage, regional coverage, global coverage, exchange-based coverage, and sector-based coverage.All indices are ultimately weighted in a number of different ways. The most common mechanisms include market-capitalization weighting, free-float adjusted market capitalization weighting, volatility weighting, price weighting, and others.

Stock market indices represents an index that measures a particular stock market or a segment of the stock market. These instruments are important investors as they help compare current price levels with past prices to calculate market performance.The main two parameters for indices are that they are both investable and transparent. For example, investors can invest in a stock market index by buying an index fund, which is structured as either a mutual fund or an exchange-traded fund, and track an index. The difference between an index fund’s performance and the index, if any, is called tracking error. Most major countries boast multiple indices. Commonly traded indices include the S&P 500, NASDAQ-100, Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIJA), EURO STOXX 50, Hang Seng Index, and many more.Stock market indices can be characterized or segmented by the index coverage set of stocks. The overall coverage of an index constitutes an underlying group of stocks, most commonly grouped together by underlying investor demand.How to Trade IndicesRetail brokers offer indices exposure through the use of contracts-for-difference (CFDs) or exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Each are popular ways to trade specific markets and are almost always on offer at most brokers.Investors can choose between multiple types of indices that traditionally fall within several categories. This includes country coverage, regional coverage, global coverage, exchange-based coverage, and sector-based coverage.All indices are ultimately weighted in a number of different ways. The most common mechanisms include market-capitalization weighting, free-float adjusted market capitalization weighting, volatility weighting, price weighting, and others.
Read this Term down for 2 consecutive days, In the premarket today, the indices are mixed with the Dow down marginally, the NASDAQ higher and the S&P marginally higher.