Morning wrap (17.02.2021)

• US indices finished yesterday's trading slightly lower. S&P 500 dropped 0.06%, Nasdaq declined 0.34% and Russell 2000 finished 0.72% lower. On the other hand, Dow Jones gained 0.20%

• Stocks in Asia also traded lower. Nikkei dropped 0.58% while S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.46%. Kospi is trading around 0.9% lower at press time

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

• Total number of confirmed coronavirus cases exceeded 110 million. Over 2.4 people died while almost 85 million recovered

• Biden said that every American who wants coronavirus vaccine will get a shot by the end of July 2021

• US Treasury Secretary Yellen and ECB President Lagarde spoke about boosting jobs and economic growth in Europe and the United States

• Janet Yellen also spoke with the EU trade commissioner Dombrovskis and said that US is ready to re-engage in talks on international taxation

• RBA Assistant Governor Kent said that without quantitative easing AUD would be 5% higher

• Oil output in the Permian Basin dropped by around a third due to recent arctic weather. Texas is coping with energy blackout and has warned that fuel shortages start to develop in some parts of the state

• Japanese exports jumped 6.4% YoY in January (exp. 6.6% YoY) while imports declined 9.5% YoY (exp. -6% YoY)

• Japanese core machinery orders increased 5.2% MoM in December

• Bitcoin retested $50,000 during Asian trading hours but was unable to break above it

• Oil trades more or less flat after recovering from an overnight drop. Gold and platinum decline. Agricultural commodities advance

• CAD and JPY are the best performing major currencies while GBP and EUR lag the most

342 thousand new coronavirus cases were reported yesterday, bringing the total count above 110 million. Source: worldometers, XTB