Continuing Slide of Tech Stocks But Dollar Holding Steady
July 28, 2026
Tuesday’s headlines include a 6.8 earthquake in Japan’s southernmost island around 6:30 GMT (16:30 local time), continuing selling pressure on chipmakers and other AI-related stocks, differing narratives concerning resumed diplomatic efforts to end the Iran war, and the start of the two-day FOMC meeting.
Nasdaq futures are 0.8% lower in contrast to a 0.7% pre-open rise of the DJIA. The tech rout was most severe in South Korea (-10.8%), Taiwan (-8.7%) and Japan (-4.0%) and the Shanghai Composite index lost a tad more than 1.0% this Tuesday. There been scant net movement in European stock markets so far.
The weighted DXY dollar index has edged 0.1% higher. The greenback is flat against the euro but 0.1% firmer against the yen, Swissy, and sterling. Gold and silver prices have absorbed significant overnight losses of 1.3% and 2.1%, whereas Bitcoin rebounded 0.5%.
Ten-year sovereign debt yields have declined four basis points in Australia, three bps in the U.K., two bps in the United States and Japan, and a single basis point in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland.
At this week’s two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the choice of whether to leave the federal funds rate at 3.50-3.75% or lift it by 25 basis points, and the street is wagering 2:1 that it will decide in favor of the wait-and-see option.
Consumer confidence in France continued to improve during July, rising two index points to a 4-month high, but at 86 such remained a distant fourteen points under the long-term average score of 100. Sentiment last clocked a reading of 100 or better in January 2022 or just before Russia launched its war with Ukraine.
South Korean consumer confidence also climbed to a 4-month high this month, but consumer sentiment slid to 2-month lows in both Taiwan and Ireland.
Malaysian producer price inflation jumped another 1.4 percentage points to a 48-month high of 9.2% in June, having only moved above zero percent three months earlier printed at -4.2% in June 2025.
Slovakian PPI inflation climbed to a 30-month high of 3.8% last month from 3.4% in May and -1.3% in the first month of 2026.
A 0.5% year-on-year increase in Spanish retail sales during June was the smallest gain in two years. In other economies last month, on-year growth in retail sales posted a 3-month high of 4.8% in Denmark but slowed to a 2-month low of 0.6% in Ireland and 4-month lows of 2.1% in Slovenia and 5.8% in Lithuanian.
Twenty-three month highs in industrial production growth were recorded last month in India of 7.3% and Lithuania of 9.8%.
Sweden’s trade surplus of SEK 8.2 billion in the first half of 2026 was 83% smaller than a year earlier. Brazil’s current account deficit of $27.43 billion in the first half of 2026 was $5.4 billion narrower than a year before.
The U.S. merchandise trade deficit exceeded the $100 threshold in back-to-back months during May and June for the first time since the first quarter of 2025. According to today’s preliminary estimate, the average gaps of $105.9 billion in May followed by $101.5 billion in June was well above the $82 per month average shortfall in the first four months of this year.
U.S. house price inflation accelerated to 9-month highs in May according to both the FHFA and Case-Shiller indices, which in the latest month stood at 2.2% and 1.6%, respectively.
The policy interest rate at the National Bank of Kyrgyzstan was left unchanged at 12.0% and thus stays one percentage point above consumer price inflation in that economy. That’s two percentage points below the crest of 14% maintained from April to November of 2022 but three percentage points above the recent low of 9.0% from May 2024 until May 2025. Inflation is nearly double the medium target of 5-7%.
Copyright 2026, Larry Greenberg. All rights reserved.
Tags: National Bank of Kyrgyzstan, U.S. trade deficit and house prices
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