Morning wrap (29.06.2023)

• US indices traded mixed yesterday - Dow Jones dropped 0.22%, S&P 500 moved 0.04% lower, Nasdaq gained 0.27% and Russell 2000 jumped almost 0.5%

• Indices from Asia-Pacific traded mixed - Nikkei gained 0.1%, Kospi dropped 0.2%, S&P/ASX 200 traded flat and indices from China dropped

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

• US banking stocks traded slightly higher in the after-hours trading after Federal Reserve said that all 23 largest banks passed annual stress tests. Fed also checked and ruled that banks' trading books are resilient to rising interest rate environment

• Goldman Sachs expects US small caps to outperform large caps over the next 12 months, with Russell 2000 expected to gain 14% and S&P 500 adding 9%

• ECB Centeno said that policy is getting to a point where ECB can pause rate hikes

• US Treasury Secretary Yellen said that while inflation dropped around 5% already, it still remains to high

• Japanese retail sales increased 5.7% YoY in May (exp. 5.4% YoY)

• Australian retail sales increased 0.7% MoM in May (exp. 0.1% MoM)

• According to Moody's, potentially slower growth in China in the next few years is unlikely to have major impact on the US economy which remains domestically driven

• Goldman Sachs expects Bank of England to deliver another 50 basis point rate hike at a meeting in August

• Cryptocurrencies are trading slightly higher today - Bitcoin gains 0.2%, Dogecoin trades 0.1% higher and Ethereum adds 0.5%

• Energy commodities trade little changed - oil trades flat while US natural gas prices gain 0.2%

• Precious metals trade mixed - gold drops 0.2%, silver gains 0.2%, platinum adds 0.4% and palladium declines 0.7%

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

US500 made another test of the 4,127 pts resistance zone yesterday but has once again failed to break above it. Source: xStation5