S&P futures gave up early gains and were trading down -0.2%, as Donald Trump completes his first Asian tour and as pressure mounts on U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May, sending the pound plunging. European stocks fell, tracking many Asian shares as the Nikkei plunge accelerated.
International equity markets seem to effortlessly surge to brand new record highs with each passing day. As we note fairly frequently, declines have grown shallower over the past two years and the S&P 500 has now gone 246 trading days without trading more than 3% below its record high, the longest streak ever for the index, according to LPL Financial. Meanwhile, the S&P hasn’t had a decline of 10% or more from a recent peak since February 2016.
While September and Q3 were the latest solid month for US risk assets, which ended the month and quarter at all time highs, across the globe returns were relatively more mixed for the sample of assets tracked by Deutsche Bank. That said, a large number of assets (21 of 39 in local currency terms) finished with a total return between -1% and +1% which in part reflects another month of incredibly low volatility with the VIX in particular spending much of it trading between 9.5 and 11.0.
July was a great month for virtually all asset classes (at least those tracked by Deutsche Bank) with the notable exception of what, which tumbled after surging previously.
S&P futures rose alongside European stocks as Asian shares posted modest declines. The euro set a new six-month high and European bourses rose as PMI data from Germany and France signaled that the ECB will have to tighten soon as Europe's recovery remains on track, with the German Ifo business confidence printing at the highest level on record, and hinting at a GDP print in the 5% range. Oil declined after the Trump budget proposal suggested selling half the crude held in the US strategic petroleum reserve.