Daily summary: US stocks edge higher despite soaring Treasury yields

European indices finished today's session lower, with CAC40 and the DAX 30 index down, 0.8% and 0.07%, respectively mostly due to poor performance of the estate and healthcare sectors. Today's downward move was partially sparked by the IMF which lowered its global growth projections for 2022 and 2023, saying the economic hit from Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine will “propagate far and wide.” Organization now expects a 3.6% GDP rate for the global economy this year and for 2023. This represents a 0.8% and 0.2% decline compared to January forecasts.

All major Wall Street indices are trading over 1.0% higher as investors digest mixed quarterly earnings from Lockheed Martin, Johnson & Johnson and Hasbro. Netflix and IBM will post their quarterly figures after market close. Aside from a busy week of corporate earnings, investors  will also focus on  comments from several Fed members this week for additional hints regarding central banks further steps, especially after recent comments from Fed Bullard which echoed the Federal Reserve intention to tighten monetary policy, saying that hikes of 75 bps could be necessary to tame runaway inflation. Traders also kept an eye on the bond market, where the 10-year Treasury yield rose to 2.92%, its highest level since 2018.

Oil prices fell more than 5% despite the fact that recent data showed that OPEC + production in March was 1.45m bpd lower compared to analysts estimates as Russian output began to decline. Also downbeat oil processing  data from China also weighed on market sentiment. On the other hand, China officials believe the pandemic impact would be “rapidly restored” as manufacturing plants prepared to reopen in Shanghai. Also Libya said it could not deliver oil from the Sharara oil field, the country’s biggest, after shutting the El Feel oil field due to political protests which may provide some fuel for the bulls in the future. Gas prices fell sharply after the US price hit $ 8 MMBTU yesterday due to increased demand caused by low temperatures. The market, however, is not afraid of a sudden closure of the gas tap by Russia (although many countries do not want to pay in rubles) and at the same time investors expect increased production in the US and lower global demand, mainly due to the conflict in Europe. Precious metals took a hit today - gold is testing local support at $1955.00 while silver briefly touched $25.10 level as a strong dollar and soaring Treasury yields put pressure on buyers. Cryptocurrencies also moved higher on Tuesday. Bitcoin is trading around $41200 while Ethereum briefly jumped above $3100.

AUDUSD pir fell sharply last week, however buyers managed to halt declines around the major support zone at 0.7340 which is marked with previous price reactions, lower limit of the wedge formation and 50 SMA (green line). Today we can observe intense buying activity. If current sentiment prevails, an upward move may accelerate towards local resistance at 0.7420 which coincides with 23.6% Fibonacci retracement of the upward wave launched in March 2020. Source: xStation5