The euro turned lower against the US dollar yesterday after ECB president Draghi pledged to keep monetary policy loose, while oil prices slipped on further evidence of oversupply and a stronger dollar.
US stocks were little changed following mixed earnings from companies including Verizon Communications, which fell 2.5 per cent after it said a strike by its wireline workers was expected to hurt earnings in the current quarter.
The euro fell as traders looked past the European Central Bank meeting and weighed the potential for a more hawkish Federal Reserve next week, while the yen gained.
CME Fed funds futures contracts yesterday suggested traders were pricing in just a 21 per cent chance of a Fed interest rate hike in June, according to CME Group’s FedWatch program.
The euro was down 0.12 per cent against the US dollar $1.1280 late morning.
The US dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six other major currencies, was last up 0.20 per cent at 94.682.
Crude oil prices were lower after market data vendor Genscape reported a build of more than 840,000 barrels in US crude in the four days to April 19 at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery point, traders who saw the data said.
US crude oil prices slide slid 48 cents to $43.70 a barrel.
In London, Brent crude was down 55 cents, or 1.2 per cent, at $45.25 a barrel late morning.
Despite yesterday’s slide, crude oil prices are up about 40 per cent from multi-year lows seen in January.
Wall Street stocks were little changed yesterday morning after a raft of mixed quarterly earnings and the slide in oil prices kept investors on the sidelines.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 0.12 per cent to 18,073.98, the S&P 500 lost 0.06 per cent to 2,101.18 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.27 per cent to 4,961.55.
Expectations for first-quarter earnings are dismally low though, with S&P 500 index companies expected to post a 7.2 per cent fall in profit on average, and a 1.4 per cent decline in revenue, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
The MSCI world stock index hit its highest level in almost five months early yesterday before trading flat, while European shares were down 0.4 per cent.
US Treasury yields rose to more than three-week highs as oil prices held firm and investors focused on supply of government and corporate debt and next week’s Fed policy meeting.
Heavy corporate debt supply and the scheduled $16 billion sale of five-year Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) yesterday added to pressure on the government bond market.
Ten-year notes fell 5/32 in price to yield 1.87 per cent, up from 1.85 per cent on Wednesday.