Morning wrap (05.05.2021)

• US indices dropped yesterday following hawkish comments from US Treasury Secretary Yellen. S&P 500 dropped 0.67%, Nasdaq slumped 1.88% and Russell 2000 declined 1.28%. Dow Jones closed 0.06% higher

• Stocks in Asia traded higher. S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.4% while Kospi moved 0.6% higher. Stock exchanges in China and Japan were shut for holiday

• DAX futures point to a higher opening of the European session

• Janet Yellen attempted to back track on her yesterday's comments. US Treasury Secretary said that she is not trying to forecast Fed's rate path and that she strongly believes in Fed's independence

• Fed's Kaplan repeated that tapering discussion should begin

• US Federal Aviation Administration is seeking more clarity on 737 MAX issues before allowing Boeing's jets to take off again

• New Zealand labour market report for Q1 showed a 0.6% QoQ employment increase (exp. +0.1% QoQ). Unemployment rate dropped from 4.9 to 4.7% (exp. 4.9%)

• Australia's building approvals jumped 17.4% MoM in March (exp. +3% MoM)

• API report pointed to a 7.69 million barrel drop in oil inventories (exp. -2.2 mb)

• Bitcoin trades slightly above $54,000 mark

• Precious metals trade mixed - gold and silver drop while platinum and palladium gain

• Industrial metals, oil and agricultural goods trade higher

• NZD and AUD are the best performing major currencies while JPY and CHF lag the most

NZDUSD experienced a strong sell-off yesterday. Daily low was reached slightly above the zone ranging around 0.7100 handle and the pair began to recover later on. Upward move is being continued today thanks to a solid jobs report. The near-term resistance to watch for the pair can be found at 0.7235. Source: xStation5