The dollar firmed against basket of major currencies after start of US session and Dollar Index hit new high. The greenback maintains strong bullish sentiment on solid US data and hawkish comments from Fed officials that boost strong expectations about US rate hike by the end of the year.
Dollar index peaked at 98.94 on Tuesday, as dollar returned to strong path against Euro and Sterling, after corrective attempts of both currencies were capped.
The greenback remains tall against yen, cracking key barriers at 104.62/75, with scope for bullish continuation towards psychological 105.00 barrier.

On the other side, Australian dollar regained traction and pressures near-term consolidation tops at 0.7650 zone, break of which would signal reversal from low of strong two-day fall at 0.7585.

Spot gold remains without clear direction in the near-term but trading within widened range, following Monday’s surge to $1271 and quick reversal to strong $1260 support zone. The yellow metal was higher on Tuesday, hitting $1270 barrier again, but strong demand for the US dollar amid increased expectations of US rate hike, may limit god’s gains for now.

European stocks were higher on Tuesday. Britain’s FTSE100 extended gains as Sterling came under increased pressure and is up 0.67% until now.

German DAX rallied earlier on Tuesday and posted new 2016 high at 10824.
Focus on Tuesday is on Stock markets, as earnings reports from a number of US companies are due today.

The earnings season has been enormously positive with about 80% of those S&P firms reporting so far having beat consensus profit estimates.

A number of companies showed better than expected earnings reports.

General Motors reported much higher-than-expected third-quarter earnings on strong North American truck and SUV sales, blowing past fears that a U.S. market slowdown would dent profitability.

Merck reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue due to higher sales of its vaccines and cancer drugs. Shares of Merck, which raised its full-year profit, were up 1.23% before Wall Street open on Tuesday.

Leading the blue-chip index higher, shares in United Technologies gained around 2.7% as the tech products and services provider reported a 4.1% in revenue that helped its EPS beat estimates by $0.10.
Second in line, Procter & Gamble rose nearly the same amount after the maker of Tide detergent and Pampers diapers reported better-than-expected profit thanks to cost cutting.

DuPont was trading up around 1.4% after the chemical giant reported EPS of $0.34 that beat the $0.21 consensus number as cost cuts helped support profit ahead of its merger with Dow Chemical.
On the other side, Caterpillar fell around 1.6% as revenue missed consensus and the world’s largest maker of mining and construction equipment lowered its 2006 guidance.

Shares in Visa slipped 0.8% in pre-market trade on Tuesday despite reporting revenue and profit after the prior day’s close that beat consensus estimates. The world’s largest payment network operator closed up 1.04% on Monday and was up a little more than 7.2% year-to-date.
After Tuesday’s close, the focus will be Apple The largest U.S. firm by market capitalization will offer the first peek into sales of the new iPhone 7. Analysts expect the iPhone maker to post earnings of $1.65 a share on revenue of $46.89 billion for the quarter.

Wall Street opened little changed on Tuesday, as investors asses a host of quarterly earnings reports from big companies and await results from Apple, due after closing bell. Dow Jones was down 0.18% after opening; Nasdaq down 0.07% and S&P500 0.15% lower after opening bell., Market Analysis