- Wall Street indices launched today's trading slightly higher but have later erased gains. S&P 500 and Dow Jones drop 0.2% each, Nasdaq trades flat, while small-cap Russell 2000 gains 0.2%
- Major European stock market indices traded mostly lower today. German DAX traded flat, UK FTSE 100 dropped 0.3%, French CAC40 moved almost 0.5% lower and Dutch AEX declined 0.2%
- Cryptocurrencies launched the new week's trading lower but have recovered from losses later on and rallied to new local highs. Bitcoin climbed above $53,000 mark for the first time since December 2021
- EUR and GBP are the best performing G10 currencies while AUD and NZD lag the most
- US natural gas prices launched new week's trading with a bullish price gap and were trading over 7% higher on the day at one point. However, gains were almost fully erased and now NATGAS trades only 1% higher on the day
- Oil trade higher with Brent testing $82 per barrel area earlier today
- Precious metals pull back - gold drops 0.3%, silver trades 2% lower while platinum and palladium plunge around 2.5% each
- ECB President Lagarde said that current disinflationary process is expected to continue but ECB needs to be confident that it is on track to reach 2% target sustainably
- Israeli shekel traded slightly lower after initial reports hinted that Israeli central bank cut interest rates. However, an official announcement said that the bank left the main interest rate unchanged at 4.50% and currency recovered
- Hungarian parliament approved Sweden's accession to NATO, clearing the final hurdle for the country to join the military alliance
- US new home sales for January came in at 661k, marking a 1.5% MoM increase. Market was expecting 3% MoM increase to 680k
- Dallas Fed manufacturing index improved in February from -27.4 to -11.3 (exp. -14.0)
BITCOIN rallied above the upper limit of the trading range and climbed above $53,000 mark for the first time since December 2021. Source: xStation5
