Markets in red ahead of nonfarm payrolls report - 4.4.2025

The Dollar weakening has reversed currently. The live dollar index data show the ICE US Dollar index, a measure of the dollar’s strength against a basket of six rival currencies, lost 2.5% on Thursday.

Both GBP/USD and EUR/USD accelerated their advancing yesterday. Both euro and Pound are lower against the dollar currently. USD/JPY accelerated its retreating while AUD/USD reversed its sliding on Thursday with both the yen and Australian dollar lower against the Greenback currently.

US stock index futures are down currently with the yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes down at 3.976%. The three main stock benchmarks ended sharply lower on Thursday recording daily losses in a range from -5.9% to -3.9% while US administration announced a slew of “reciprocal tariffs” on more than 180 countries and territories, setting a 10% baseline tariff across the board.

European indexes futures are lower today after stock indexes closed down on Thursday as President Donald Trump’s tariff announcement unveiled a 20% tariff on goods being imported from the EU and 10% on goods from the UK. Asian stock indexes futures are mostly retreating today with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng leading losses against the backdrop of a new 34% tariff rate on imports from China which will come on top of the existing 20% tariffs on imports, taking the effective total tariffs to 54%. Beijing urged Washington to cancel the unilateral tariff measures.

Brent is extending losses currently as Goldman Sachs cut its crude oil price forecasts amid tariff fears and expectations of higher OPEC+ supply. Prices ended over 6% lower on Thursday after OPEC+ countries agreed to a surprise advance in their plan for oil output hikes, now aiming to return 411,000 barrels per day(bpd) to the market in May, up from 135,000 bpd initially planned. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures plunged 6.6% and are lower currently. Brent futures dropped 6.4% to $70.14 a barrel on Thursday.