Morning wrap (18.04.2023)

• US indices finished yesterday's trading slightly higher. S&P 500 gained 0.33%, Dow Jones moved 0.30% higher and Nasdaq added 0.28%. Russell 2000 was an outperformer and rallied 1.22%

• Downbeat moods could be spotted during the trading in Asia today - Nikkei gained 0.4%, S&P/ASX 200 moved 0.4% lower, Kospi dropped 0.3% and Nifty 50 traded 0.2% lower. Indices from China traded mixed

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

• Chinese GDP growth reached 4.5% YoY in Q1 2023 and was much better than 4.0% YoY expected by analysts. However, on a quarterly basis growth reached 2.2% QoQ and was in-line with expectations

• Monthly activity data from China for March came in mixed. Chinese retail sales surged 10.6% YoY in March (exp. 8.0% YoY), industrial production increased 3.9% YoY (exp. 4.7% YoY) and urban investments were 5.1% YoY higher (exp. 5.8% YoY)

• According to RBA minutes, RBA members considered a rate hike at April meeting before ultimately deciding on a pause. Minutes showed that there is a stronger case to pause rates and assess whether there is need for more tightening

• BoJ Governor Ueda said that buying government debt is part of monetary policy and is not aimed at monetising it

• Cryptocurrencies are trading slightly higher today - Bitcoin gains 0.4% higher, Ethereum gains 0.6% and Dogecoin jumps 1.3%

• Energy commodities trade mixed - oil gains 0.3% while US natural gas prices drop over 1% following yesterday's rally

• Precious metals gain amid USD weakening - gold and silver trade 0.3% higher while platinum adds 0.2%

• AUD and EUR are the best performing major currencies while USD and JPY lag the most

AUDJPY gains following the release of upbeat Chinese Q1 GDP data. The pair climbed above a downward trendline at the end of the previous week and is continuing to advance towards the 91.00 resistance zone. Source: xStation5