Equities pare gains during US session on Friday

Traders bought the dip in US equities, but as usual, the opening bullish gaps are sold and Friday was no exception, with indices quickly paring gains during the US session.Investors sold risky assets on Thursday as it seems the second wave of COVID 19 infections might have arrived in the US. 

The states that look most problematic currently are California, Texas, Florida and Arizona. The first three are the largest states in terms of population in the US (combined at 90.5 million people) and all have seen growing cases rates in the last 2 weeks. 

The total case per million for each of those states is between 2,700-4,100. This is similar to the numbers out of Italy and France and just below the U.K. even if fatalities in these states are so far relatively low.

However, today’s US consumer confidence surprised on the upside as the headline sentiment index increased 6.6 points to 78.9 (the biggest jump since June 2016) as the gauge of current conditions advanced 5.5 points to 87.8 this month, while a measure of expectations jumped 7.2 points to 73.1. 

The greenback remained stronger on the day against the Yen and the Euro, but was sold-off against commodity-linked currencies.