According to the Department of Labor, initial jobless claims in the U.S. for the week ending August 6 rose by just 14,000 from the previous week to 262,000. The consensus forecast expected the number to be 263,000. The previous week's claims were revised down from 260,000 to 248,000. The 4-week moving average was 252,000, an increase of 4,500 from the previous week's revised average. Furthermore, the U.S. wholesale inflation fell 0.5% in July, in another sign that price increases are slowing – at least, seasonally. According to Dow Jones estimates, producer prices were expected to have risen 0.2% in July.

Several Federal Reserve officials responded to softening inflation data by saying it doesn’t change the FOMC’s path toward even higher interest rates this year. Thus, one of the most dovish policymakers, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, said yesterday that he wants the Fed’s benchmark interest rate at 3.9% by the end of this year. So, basically, yesterday's stock rally was fueled by anticipations that the Fed may turn less hawkish. Yet some market commentators cautioned that policymakers would prefer to see more evidence that price gains are slowing before they change their posture.

OPEC just released its post-summit memo articulating that it has revised down its global economic growth outlook to 3.1% for both this year and the next. GDP growth expectations were downgraded to 1.8% in 2022 and to 1.7% in 2023 for the U.S. The Eurozone economy is seen expanding by 3.2% in 2022. China's GDP growth projection has been cut to 4.5% for this year, but remained unchanged at 5% for 2023. As such, OPEC also revised oil demand growth down to 3.1M bpd. Meanwhile, U.S. gasoline stockpiles fell sharply as demand rose after weeks of depressed consumption during the peak summer driving season. At the time of writing, the front month futures of Brent Crude Oil is trading at $98.66/bbl, gaining 1.74%.

U.S. stock index futures rose to their three-month highs on today’s premarket. Overall, according to Evercore ISI, the Q2 earnings season has helped underpin the market. With companies representing 91% of S&P 500 market capitalization having reported, sales growth has been 15.1% and earnings growth 7.9% – surprising by plus 3.5% and plus 3.6%.

European markets are trading with anemic changes today. As of 3:30 p.m. CET, the Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose a barely noticeable 0.04%, British FTSE 100 slipped 0.39% while the French CAC 40 Index remained nearly unchanged, but German DAX rose 0.16%.

Conversely, Asian markets further advanced higher earlier this morning. China’s Shanghai Composite climbed 1.6%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index jumped 2.4%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.1%, while India’s S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.9%. Auto sales in China climbed 29.7% YoY to 2.42 million units in July following a 23.8% increase in June.