Traders tentative ahead of Greek referendum

Equity, fixed income and forex markets are struggling to establish clear trends as caution prevails ahead of the Greek “cash for reforms” referendum on Sunday.

Wall Street’s closure for Independence Day is removing a crucial source of momentum, though yet again Chinese stocks are an outlier, with investors suffering another extremely volatile and ultimately miserable session.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300, a pan-European stock index, is down 0.3 per cent and that nervousness is showing in demand for havens, with German benchmark 10-year Bund yields easing 2 basis points to 0.83 per cent. Yet the euro is adding 8 pips to $1.1091, Financial Times reported.

Base metal prices are mildly mixed and Brent crude is off 40 cents to $61.67 a barrel.

Gold is up just $3 at $1,167 an ounce, and sits only $35 or so above fresh five-year lows. The bullion has not benefited from any flight to safety related to worries over Greece, with the recently stronger dollar and the prospect of higher US borrowing costs.

That said, US 2-year government bond yields, which are highly sensitive to monetary policy, fell 6 basis points to 0.63 per cent on Thursday, following slightly softer than expected jobs data, which some analysts believe calls into question the likelihood of the Federal Reserve raising interest rates in September.

The US bond market is also closed on Friday but the jobs news is still weighing on the buck — a bit — with the dollar index inching 0.1 per cent lower to 96.03.

The reluctance to make bold bets in the current session was also evident in parts of Asia, exemplified by Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average adding less than 0.1 per cent.