- US indices finished yesterday's trading higher, near the session highs. S&P 500 gained 0.43%, Dow Jones moved 0.19% higher and Nasdaq added 0.71%. Russell 2000 was a laggard with 0.2% drop
- FOMC minutes showed that central bankers see the need to proceed carefully when deciding on further tightening due to high volatility in data. FOMC members see need to keep rates at higher levels for longer
- Indices from Asia-Pacific traded higher today - Nikkei jumped 1.6%,, Kospi added 0.8% while Nifty 50 and S&P/ASX 200 were trading 0.1% higher. Indices from China gained 0.6-0.8%
- European index futures point to a higher opening of the cash session on the Old Continent today
- Fed Collins said that the FOMC is near or even already at the peak of rate hike cycle. She also said that Fed will factor in Middle East escalation when making decisions
- ECB Vujcic said that it is too early to declare victory over inflation and he would prefer to wait until early-2024 before doing so
- RBNZ Governor Orr said that official cash rate will remain at restrictive levels for foreseeable future to ensure CPI inflation returning to 1-3% target
- Japanese core machinery orders dropped 0.5% MoM in August (exp. +0.5% MoM)
- API report pointed to a massive oil inventory build of 12.94 million barrels (exp. +1.3 mb)
- Major cryptocurrencies are trading mixed - Bitcoin gains 0.4%, Dogecoin adds 0.2%, Ethereum drops 0.2% and Ripple declines 0.7%
- Energy commodities trade slightly lower - oil drops 0.2-0.3% while US natural gas prices are down 0.1%
- Precious metals gain - gold trades 0.3% higher, silver adds 0.6% and platinum gains 0.5%
- EUR and CHF are the best performing major currencies while NZD and JPY lag the most
Lack of any strong hawkish remarks in FOMC minutes allowed US indices to extend recent gains. Nasdaq-100 futures (US100) jumped to a 3-week high and are now over 5% above recent lows. Source: xStation5
