Muted US markets lead to tough European session

Yesterday's star of the day Vanguard Mortgage-Backed Securities ETF appreciates 0.84% while outperforming its peers
IShares Trust – iShares iBonds Dec 2021 Term Treasury ETF was the biggest decliner yesterday after giving up 0.04%
European markets are currently lower as trading gets underway.

Ahead of today's session: markets completed a mixed session yesterday while Nasdaq ended the session at 13,017 after a 0.32% gain. Dow Jones lost 0.15% and ended the session at 33,043.

US markets are now currently closed and set to reopen today; meanwhile, European markets are currently lower as trading gets underway. Asia-Pacific markets were down today as ASX 200 is currently down 1.64% and trading around 7,091.3.

Via open market operations, the US Treasury issues bonds with varying maturities from 3 months to 30 years. Inversely related to bond prices, yields on one month US government debt fell to 5.31%.

3Rd quarter earnings season is mostly over, with Advance Auto Parts Inc and Pure Storage, Inc. releasing their earnings reports just this week.

Ambiguous macro data is influencing the market as highly important Consumer Confidence data from United States beat analyst expectations of 99 with a reading of 102.3. United States S&P/CS HPI Composite – 20 n.s.a. (YoY) (Mar) came out at -1.1, while a consensus of analysts was expecting -1.6.

Data to be released today might clear up some of the market fog as United States Crude Oil Inventories is projected to outperform its last figure with -1.10 million. It previously stood at -12.46 million; data will be released tomorrow at 15:00 UTC. United States ADP Nonfarm Employment Change (May) scheduled to come out tomorrow at 12:15 UTC. Friday data for United States Non Farm Payrolls will be released, with an expected decline to 180,000 from the preceding figure of 253,000.

While markets were generally sideways yesterday, these assets pulled ahead as Vanguard Mortgage-Backed Securities ETF up 0.84% trading at $45.87. Vanguard Short-Term Corporate Bond ETF is doing well and gains 0.423%.

With price action largely muted in yesterday's session, several assets struggled to find momentum as iShares Trust – iShares iBonds Dec 2021 Term Treasury ETF lost 0.04% yesterday before closing at $25.35.

The fund disclosed a quarterly dividend of 12.2 cents per share on Thursday, April 27th and was paid on Thursday, May 4th — thereby generating a yield of 1.06% for all eligble investors.

IShares Trust – iShares iBonds Dec 2021 Term Treasury ETF has been pretty quiet for the last a month, trading mostly flat and moving by only 0.02 cents on average.