Morning wrap (19.04.2021)

• Stocks in Asia are trading higher at the beginning of a new week. S&P/ASX 200 gained around 0.2%, Kospi moved 0.3% higher and indices from China gained over 1%. Nikkei dropped slightly

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

• Axios claims that President Biden is reportedly ready to accept corporate tax hike to 25%, instead of 28%

• Total coronavirus death toll exceeded 3 million over the weekend. There were 142 million confirmed cases so far and 120.5 million recoveries

• The United Kingdom will move part of its navy fleet into the Black Sea in May amid rising Russia-Ukraine tensions. Russia is also boosting presence of its warships

• Japanese industrial production declined 1.3% MoM in February (exp. -2.1% MoM)

• Japanese exports increased 16.1% YoY in March (exp. 11.6% YoY) while imports increased 5.7% YoY (exp. 4.7% YoY)

• CME rejected rumours saying that it plans to launch Dogecoin futures

• Bitcoin plunged over 10% during the weekend and trades near $56,000 mark

• Precious metals trade mixed while oil trades lower

• GBP and NZD are the best performing major currencies while CHF and EUR lag the most

DE30 jumped above 127.2% retracement of the 2020 pandemic shock last week. Index is seen launching today's cash session near 15,500 pts - the highest cash opening in history. Source: xStation5