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ECB President Mario Draghi Speaks At Bank's Annual Forum
By the end of the trading day we will have heard from several top central bank representatives; before the opening bell European Central Bank President Mario Draghi spoke at the bank's annual forum in Portugal where he discussed the bank’s monetary policy. In his speech he urged persistence in the stimulus, but stated that the EU might start winding down the stimulus as the economy picks up. These comments helped lift the euro up by +0.6%. Bank of England Governor, Mark Carney, and Fed Chairwoman, Janet Yellen, will be speaking in London discussing global economic issues (Yellen is expected to speak around noon CST). Investors will be looking for indicators of any shift in the Fed’s stance on their anticipated rate hike later in the year.
Also before the opening bell EU regulators imposed a record breaking antitrust fine of $2.7 billion (2.42 billion euros) on Alphabet Inc.'s Google. The EU said that Google misrepresented results of their shopping service to thwart smaller search services. But this will not be a huge issue for Google, as they have over $90 billion in cash currently.
As for the domestic economic news, the Case-Shiller Home Price Index (HPI) will be released in the early part of the day. Last month we saw a reading of +5.89 (year over year) which marked a 33 month high. Also, JC Penney saw a boost before the opening bell as Gordon Haskett Research Advisors upgraded the company from reduce to hold. The research firm cited improving same store sales as the main driver behind the upgrade.