- Wall Street indices dropped yesterday amid an increase in Middle East tensions and fears of further Israel-Iran escalation. S&P 500 dropped 1.20%, Dow Jones moved 0.65% lower, Nasdaq slumped 1.79% and small-cap Russell 2000 finished 1.40% down
- Indices from Asia-Pacific traded lower, reacting to weak Wall Street session. Nikkei dropped 1.6%, S&P/ASX 200 moved 1.7% lower, Kospi plunged 2.4% and Nifty 50 traded 0.3% lower. Indices from China dropped 0.2-1.7%
- European futures point to a lower opening of the cash session on the Old Continent today
- Markets are on the edge, awaiting Israeli response to the weekend Iranian attack. Wall Street Journal reported that it could be imminent. Iran warned that it would respond to a retaliatory strike instantly
- However, Iranian foreign minister told his Chinese counterpart during a phone call that his country is willing to exercise restraint and has no intention of escalating situation further
- Fed Daly said that recent data on inflation was not surprising, as bumps should be expected. Daly also said that there is no urgency to cut rates
- Chinese GDP growth reached 1.6% QoQ in Q1 2024 (exp. 1.4% QoQ). On an annual basis, growth accelerated from 5.2% to 5.3% YoY (exp. 4.6% YoY)
- Chinese industrial production increased 4.5% YoY in March (exp. 6.0% YoY), retail sales were 3.1% YoY higher (exp. 4.6% YoY) and urban investment increased 4.5% YoY (exp. 4.2% YoY)
- Passenger air traffic in China increased 37.7% YoY in Q1 2024 to almost 180 million travels. This was also 10.2% higher than in pre-pandemic Q1 2019. Cargo turnover was 45.6% YoY higher at almost 34.93 billion ton-kilometers, and up 12.9% compared to Q1 2019
- Precious metals trade mostly lower - gold gains 0.2%, but silver drops 0.2%, platinum trades 0.1% lower and palladium declines 0.4%
- Energy commodities trade mixed - oil gains 0.4%, while US natural gas prices drop 0.1%
- Cryptocurrencies drop with Bitcoin moving 1% lower, Ethereum dropping 2.1% and Dogecoin slumping 4.5%
- USD and CAD are the best performing G10 currencies, while AUD and NZD lag the most
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