United States stocks slip as health care and technology take losses

Japanese shares rose, Friday, Nov. 18, 2016, on the yen’s weakness while other Asian benchmarks wobbled after Fed chair Janet Yellen signaled that policymakers intend to raise interest rates soon.

Although Trump economic advisor Judy Shelton promised Bloomberg Television’s David Gura last week that the Fed “will remain independent” under the president-elect, Trump has also accused the central bank of creating a “very false economy” by keeping interest rates low.

On the currency front, the us dollar is trading at 110.50 yen compared to the 110.12 yen it fetched at the close of NY trading on Thursday. A quiet day on the USA economic front may also keep some traders on the sidelines following the slew of data that was released on Thursday. So, even though Yellen cautioned that political uncertainty could persist “for some considerable time”, she seemed upbeat about the possibility of a December rate hike.

The PowerShares DB U.S. Dollar Index Bullish Fund (NYSEArca: UUP) rose 0.3% Friday and increased 2.2% over the past week. Dow futures dipped less than 0.1 percent to 18,861.00 and broader S&P 500 futures slipped 0.1 percent to 2,182.60.

Fiscal spending Data on Thursday suggesting the USA jobs market is tightening and inflation is gaining traction have bolstered a view that United States growth and inflation could accelerate if the Trump administration cuts taxes and increases fiscal spending.

The dollar, however, rose to a thirteen-and-a-half-year high due to the selloff in the bond markets – with the definitive news arriving from overseas.

In the week ending November 12, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 235,000, a decrease of 19,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level of 254,000.

CISCO, OH NO: Cisco Systems fell after its earnings forecast disappointed Wall Street. Eastern as Wal-Mart and Cisco Systems slumped. Wells Fargo and Bank of America advanced around 2%.

Major U.S. stock indexes are slipping Friday as investors take a pause following a steady climb since last week’s presidential election.

Gold prices in dollar terms came under renewed pressure today testing strong support at the $1,200/oz level. Nasdaq-100 futures rose 4.5 points to 4,833.24. EURUSD went 0.08% up to 1.0631.

On the economic front, advance estimates of US retail and food services sales for October increased 0.8 percent from the previous month to 465.9 billion dollars, above market estimates of 0.6 percent.

The rupee ended at 68.13 against the USA dollar over Federal hike expectations and dollar shock. Online competitor Amazon rose $3.88 to $750.37. On Friday, it was fairly steady, with the euro unchanged at $1.0618 and the dollar flat at 110.14 yen.

DOLLAR BUOYANT: Predictions of a rate hike have been one of the main reasons why the dollar has been buoyant over recent weeks. Consumer goods and services were the top performers.

“When there is greater clarity about the economic policies that might be put into effect the (Federal Open Market Committee, FOMC) will have to factor those assessments of their impact on employment and inflation and perhaps adjust our outlook”, Yellen said. Financials were the top performers with Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Westpac Banking Corp up by 0.3%. Its stock picked up $3.06, or 4.1 percent, to $78.25. The oil was advancing as OPEC proposed Iran to cap its output at 3.92mln barrels a day while energy ministers of Saudi Arabia and Russian Federation supported the oil freeze deal.