SPDR Regional Banks (KRE) was active with buyers, second day in a row of above average volume. iShares S&P 500 value (IVE) and iShares S&P 500 core (IVV) were both active.
In Fixed Income, iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond (IEF) had a big print go up early, over $100 million and the fund ended up trading over 5 million shares for the day.
[related_stories]USDOLLAR Index Softens as Markets Wait for CPI, FOMC Minutes
Christopher Vecchio, Currency Analyst at DailyFX, discusses the lull in the USDOLLAR Index ahead of tomorrow’s CPI report.
“There’s been little net movement in the USDOLLAR Index today, but that’s because traders are getting ready for a very important data set release tomrorow. On the back of a weaker US Dollar and rising energy prices through the first four-plus months of the year, market participants are anxiously waiting to see if signs of rising price pressures turn up in the April US Consumer Price Index report, due out tomorrow at 12:30 GMT.
In recent days, US economic data has started to improve in meaningful areas, particularly for the consumer. Real spending is currently tracking at +3.7% annualized in Q2’16, which would provide a significant bump to growth. After Friday’s release of the April US Advance Retail Sales report, the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow Forecast for Q2’16 improved to +2.8%.
Rising inflation pressures could be the key to convincing market participants that the Federal Reserve is seriously considering raising rates in June. Right now, that’s not really on traders’ minds – the Fed funds futures contract is still pricing in less than a 10% chance of a rate hike next month. With traders the least long the US Dollar in two years (and the least net-short EUR/USD over the same time period), any data that suggests that market is too dovish on the Fed’s rate normalization path could catalyze more strength from the US Dollar (which would conveniently fit with the 20-year seasonality forecast for May).”