UK Retail Sales shrank the most in six months

Retail sales in the UK dropped 0.9 percent in June from May, following a 0.9 percent rise in the previous month. It is the biggest fall so far this year and worse than market expectations of a 0.6 percent drop. Sales of textiles, clothing and footwear recorded the biggest fall (-1.8 percent), followed by sales at non-specialized stores (-1.6 percent), food (-1.2 percent), non-food (-0.8 percent) and auto fuel (-0.4 percent).

"While there is so far little evidence that consumer spending has been immediately hit hard by the Brexit vote, a plunge in consumer confidence reported by GfK reinforces suspicion that consumers are likely to markedly rein in their spending over the coming months – particularly on big-ticket items," said Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Markit.

"It is also highly likely that consumers will face deteriorating fundamentals over the coming months"

Market Snapshot



Equity Markets: Top performers: Norway, South Arica, Italy. Worst performers: Germany, India, JapanThe Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.19 percent, to 18,595.03. The S&P 500 gained 0.43 percent, to 2,173.02 and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.06 percent, to 5,089.93. The Nikkei rose 1.4 percent to 16,908.25 in midmorning trade after reaching as high as 16,938.96, the highest since June 1. The broader Topix gained 0.8 percent to 1,341.13 and the JPX-Nikkei Index 400 advanced 0.8 percent to 12,046.80. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan was up 0.3 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index edged up 0.13 percent, while the Australian Index, S&P/ASX 200, gained 0.60 percent.

Currency Markets: Top performers: CHF/NZD, EUR/NZD, GBP/NZD. Worst performers Currencies: NZD/AUD, GBP/JPY, NZD/JPY. The dollar was up 0.3 percent at 107.210 yen after touching 107.460, its highest since June 7. The euro stood little changed at $1.1018 after shedding 0.5 percent overnight when it stooped to a near one-month low of $1.0980. The pound was up 0.2 percent at $1.3240. The Australian dollar touched a two-week low of $0.7452, giving ground to a broadly stronger greenback. The dollar index hovered near 97.323, its highest level since March 10 marked overnight.

Commodities Markets: Top performers: Soybean meal, Soybean, Sugar. Worst performers: Palladium, Cocoa, Heating Oil. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was up 2 cents at $45.77 a barrel. Brent crude's front-month contract was up 5 cents at $47.22 a barrel. U.S. crude inventories fell 2.3 million barrels in the week ending July 15. Spot gold fell 0.1 percent at $1,314.20 an ounce. Spot silver fell 0.7 percent to $19.26 an ounce. Platinum was down 0.3 percent to $1,076.60. Palladium was down 0.5 percent at $666.35 per ounce.

Treasuries:  Top performers: US T-Note 2 year, US T-Note 5 year, Euro Schztz. Worst performers: UK Glit, Euro Bund, Euro Buxi. The 10-year JGB yield added half a basis point to minus 0.240 percent, while September 10-year futures edged up 0.02 point to 153.30 in afternoon trading. The 20-year JGB yield added 3 basis points to 0.175 percent, and the 30-year JGB yield rose 4 basis points to 0.245 percent.