U.S. stocks are trending south today, led by near-1% losses for the big three indices. At press time, the DJIA DOW (-345), S&P 500 SPX (-42), and NASDAQ (-185) are all deep into the red. While the driver of the downturn is debatable, COVID-19 Delta variant fears and lagging retail sales numbers are likely culprits.
On the economic news front, July’s Retail Sales figures were released to the public during the premarket hours.
Here’s a look a the hard data:
| Event | Actual | Projected | Previous |
| Core Retail Sales (MoM)(Jul) | -0.4% | 0.1% | 1.6% |
| Retail Sales (YoY) (Jul) | 15.78% | NA | 18.73% |
| Retail Sales (MoM) (Jul) | -1.1% | -0.3% | 0.7% |
The S&P 500 has taken it on the chin today, falling about 1%. Now, traders are becoming increasingly skeptical about the index’s lofty valuation.
XRP has certainly been volatile lately and the price looks like it is on the back foot for now. Price couldn’t break $1.30 and so far we are back towards support at $1.10.
GOLD continues to crawl back towards the $1800 level, and we long here. This could be an interesting 24 hours in the metals.
BTC has dropped the key support level at $46,000 and is on the slide.
(source: FxLeaders)
