Morning wrap (13.03.2023)

• Some relief can be spotted on US index futures at the beginning of a new week as US authorities stepped in to limited fallout from SVB and Signature Bank collapse

• S&P 500 futures trade almost 2% above Friday's cash close. European index futures are trading slightly above Friday's cash close

• Indices from Asia-Pacific traded mixed today - Nikkei dropped 1.1%, S&P/ASX 200 moved 0.5% lower, Nifty 50 dropped 0.4%, Kospi traded 0.7% higher and indices from China gained 0.2-2.1%

• The Federal Reserve announced the creation of an emergency lending facility to help guarantee deposits in endangered banks. US Treasury insists that it is not a bailout but simply protection of bank deposits

• Fed will provide liquidity to depositary banks so they can service depositors

• Coinbase said that actions announced by authorities may allow it to withdraw all money deposited at Signature Bank (around $240 million), rather than only a fraction as it tends to be the case with corporate customers during bank failures

• A few institutions have been named by media as potential buyers of SVB, among which one can find HSBC, JPMorgan or PNC

• Issues in the US banking sector caused major investment banks to revise their FOMC forecasts. Goldman Sachs no longer expects Fed to hike rates at a meeting next week while JPMorgan expects a 25 bp rate hike

• Market expectations were closer to +50 bp rate move prior to the weekend but have fallen and now market does not fully price in even a 25 bp rate hike

• SNB Chairman Jordan said Swiss National Bank is doing all that it can to get inflation under control and get it below 2%

• Cryptocurrencies are benefiting from recovery rally in risk assets. Bitcoin trades over 6% above Friday's levels and moves back above $21,000 mark

• Oil is trading mixed while US natural gas prices jump 2%

• Precious metals trade mixed - gold drops 0.3%, silver gains 0.1% and platinum dips 0.4%

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

Nasdaq-100 (US100) halted sell-off in the vicinity of the 11,850 pts support zone. Rescue actions undertaken by the Fed and US Treasury boosted moods on the markets, allowing the index to launch a recovery move. Source: xStation5