Morning wrap (12.01.2023)

• US indices finished yesterday's session higher with Nasdaq posting gains for the fourth day in a row. Dow Jones gained 0.80%, S&P 500 moved 1.28% higher and Nasdaq jumped 1.76%. Small-cap Russell 2000 gained 1.17%

• Indices from Asia-Pacific traded mixed today. Nikkei traded flat, S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.2%, Kospi moved 0.2% higher, Nifty 50 dropped 0.4% and indices from China traded mixed

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

• Fed Collins said that she prefers a 25 bp rate hike in February, rather than another 50 bp rate hike

• According to Yomiuri report, Bank of Japan will conduct a review of side effects of its policy easing at a meeting next week

• According to WSJ reporter, Fed in-house research suggests that US job growth was around 300,000 per month last year and was weaker than reported by Bureau of Labor Statistics

• Goldman Sachs expects Brent price to climb to $110 in Q3 2023 amid reopening of Chinese economy

• Chinese CPI inflation accelerated from 1.6 to 1.8% YoY in December (exp. 1.8% YoY) while PPI inflation moved from -1.3  to -0.7% YoY (exp. -0.1% YoY)

• Australian imports dropped 1% MoM in November while exports were unchanged (0.0% MoM)

• Cryptocurrencies trade mostly higher with Bitcoin adding 3.3%, Ethereum trading 3.8% higher and Dogecoin jumping 3%

• Energy commodities trade lower on Thursday morning - oil drops 0.3-0.4% while US natural gas price plunge over 1.2%

• Precious metals gain in spite of USD strengthening. Gold adds 0.4%, silver gains 0.9% and platinum trades 0.3% higher

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

Japanese yen is the best performing G10 currency today. JPY gains on news that Bank of Japan plans to review side effects of its loose monetary policy. NZDJPY is taking a hit today and is pulling back from the resistance zone in the 84.50 area, which it failed to break above earlier this week. Source: xStation5