Morning wrap (15.12.2022)

• US indices finished yesterday's trading lower following a hawkish Fed. While 50 bp rate hike was in-line with expectations, median dot-plot for 2023 was revised higher from 4.6% in September's projections to 5.1%. Rate forecasts were also raise slightly for 2024 and 2025

• S&P 500 dropped 0.61% and finished below 4,000 pts, Nasdaq dropped 0.76% and Dow Jones traded 0.42% lower. Russell 2000 dropped 0.65%

• Indices from Asia-Pacific traded lower following a downbeat Wall Street session as well as release of disappointing Chinese activity data for November

• Chinese retail sales dropped 5.9% YoY in November (exp. -3.6% YoY), industrial production was 2.2% YoY higher (exp. 3.6% YoY) while urban investments climbed 5.3% YoY (exp. 5.7% YoY)

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

• According to Bloomberg report, Canada plans to revoke waiver exempting gas pipeline turbines from Russian sanctions

• TC Energy said that it has restarted some sections of Keystone pipeline network but whole system is not fully operational yet

• New Zealand GDP grew at a pace of 2.0% QoQ in Q3 2022 (exp. 1.0% QoQ)

• Australian employment increased by 64k in November (exp. +17k) while unemployment rate stayed unchanged at 3.4% (exp. 3.4%)

• Japanese exports increased 20.0% YoY in November (exp. 19.8% YoY) while imports were 30.3% YoY higher (exp. 27% YoY)

• Cryptocurrencies trade lower with Bitcoin dropping 0.6%, Ethereum trading 1.5% lower and Dogecoin declining 1.2%

• Brent and WTI trade around 0.8% lower on the day. Precious metals are also pulling back with gold dropping 0.6% and silver slumping over 2%

• USD and CAD are the best performing major currencies while AUD and NZD lag the most

Hawkish Fed led to strengthening of US dollar, which in turn put pressure on precious metal prices. Gold is pulling back from the resistance zone ranging above $1,800 per ounce which was a key hurdle for the bulls so far in December. Source: xStation5