- Wall Street indices finished yesterday's trading mostly lower. S&P 500 dropped 0.11%, Nasdaq moved 0.41% lower and small-cap Russell 2000 declined 0.80%. Dow Jones was the outperformer and managed to gain 0.12%
- Indices from Asia-Pacific traded mostly higher today - S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.1%, Kospi traded 0.8% higher, Nifty 50 and Nikkei traded flat, while indices from China traded higher
- DAX futures point to a higher opening of the European cash session today
- BoJ Governor Ueda said that Bank of Japan will exit negative rates, yield curve control and other large monetary easing steps when achievement of 2% inflation is stably and sustainably in sight
- Ueda also said that Japanese economy is recovering moderately, although there are some weak points in data, and that BoJ is focusing on whether a positive wage-inflation cycle is starting
- Japan finance minister Suzuki said that there are positive developments seen in Japan's economy like record capital expenditures and high pay hikes. However, he said that Japan has not reached a stage where it can avoid the risk of falling back into deflation
- Suzuki also said he expects Bank of Japan to conduct appropriate policy and that specific monetary policy is up to BoJ to decide
- According to media reports, Bank of Japan officials are said to be split between hiking rates in March or April. Report says that if rates are held unchanged in March, Bank of Japan may send a signal to hike is coming in April
- RBA Hunter said that inflation is the biggest drag on household consumption, with households clearly struggling at present. However, she said that Q4 GDP and recent inflation that were largely in-line with forecasts
- JPMorgan CEO Dimon said that he sees a little bit of bubble in equity markets right now. He also said that FOMC should wait until after June with cutting rates
- Cryptocurrencies pull back - Bitcoin drops 1.2%, Ethereum trades 1.5% lower, Dogecoin declines 3.2% and Ripple plunges 5%
- Energy commodities trade higher - oil gains 0.1%, while US natural gas prices climb 0.6%
- Precious metals trade 0.2-0.3% lower in spite of USD weakening
- EUR and CHF are the best performing major currencies while JPY and USD lag the most
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