Morning wrap (26.10.2022)

• US indices finished yesterday's trading higher, marking a third bullish session in a row. S&P 500 gained 1.63%, Dow Jones moved 1.07% higher and Nasdaq added 2.25%. Small-cap index Russell 2000 rallied 2.80%

• US indices, however, gave up some of the cash session gains in the after-hours trading as Q3 earnings reports from Alphabet and Microsoft disappointed

• Shares of Alphabet moved around 6.5% lower in the after-hours trading. Company reported Q3 EPS at $1.06 (exp. $1.25) and revenue at $69.09 billion (exp. $70.58 billion). YouTube ad revenue came in at $7.07 billion, missing the $7.42 billion estimate. Company's executives noted that a drop in ad spending is becoming visible

• Microsoft dropped over 6% in the after-hours trading. While the company managed to beat expectations with $2.35 EPS (exp. $2.30) and $50.12 billion revenue ($49.61 billion), it has disappointed with current quarter guidance. Microsoft expects calendar Q4 2022 revenue to reach $52.35-53.35 billion - much less than $56.05 billion expected by the market

• Indices from Asia-Pacific traded higher today, following lead from US indices. Nikkei gained 0.8%, S&P/ASX 200 added 0.2% while Kospi traded 0.6% higher. Indices from China gained 0.8-2.2%

• DAX futures point to a more or less flat opening of the European cash session

• Reuters reports that major state-owned Chinese banks stepped into markets early in the US session on Tuesday and sold US dollars to support weakening yuan

• According to the Times report, new UK Prime Minister is mulling delaying medium-term budget statement that was expected to be made on Monday, October 31

• Australian CPI inflation came in at 1.8% QoQ in Q3 2022 (exp. 1.6% QoQ)

• API report pointed to a 4.52 million barrel build in US oil inventories (exp. 0.2 mb)

• Cryptocurrencies trade mixed - Bitcoin drops 0.3%, Ethereum trades 0.2% lower, Ripple trades flat while Dogecoin gains almost 5%

• Precious metals advance - gold adds 0.4%, silver rallies 1.1% while platinum gains 0.9%

• Energy commodities trade slightly lower with both Brent and WTi pulling back around 0.2% at press time

• AUD and CHF are the best performing major currencies while NZD and JPY lag the most

Nasdaq-100 (US100) jumped above the upper limit of the market geometry and 200-period moving average on H4 interval yesterday. However, advance was halted at 38.2% retracement of the downward impulse launched in mid-August and the index pulled back to 11,500 pts area following disappointing earnings reports from Microsoft and Alphabet. Source: xStation5