Global Markets:
- Asian Stock Markets : Nikkei up 2.08%, Shanghai Composite down 0.50%, Hang Seng down 1.00% ASX down 0.69%
- Commodities : Gold at $2031.5 (-0.07%), Silver at $23.03 (-0.24%), Brent Oil at $77.92 (0.43%), WTI Oil at $72.87 (0.55%)
- Rates : US 10-year yield at 4.025, UK 10-year yield at 3.819, Germany 10-year yield at 2.185
News & Data:
- (CAD) Building Permits m/m -3.9% vs -1.5% expected
- (CAD) Trade balance 1.6B vs 2.0B expected
- (USD) Trade balance -63.2B vs -64.9B expected
Markets Update:
In the Asia-Pacific region, markets displayed a mixed trend on Wednesday. Japan’s stocks continued their upward trajectory, with the Nikkei 225 surging by 2.1%, building on its recent 33-year high. This surge was largely driven by the health technology and consumer services sectors. The broader Topix index also recorded gains, climbing by 1.49%.
Meanwhile, Australia’s weighted consumer price index, representing the average CPI of eight major cities, rose by 4.3% year on year, slightly below the 4.4% expected from a Reuters poll. This led to a 0.69% drop in the S&P/ASX 200, ending at 7,468.50, following a recent four-day losing streak.
South Korea faced a 0.7% decline in the Kospi index, coinciding with a 23-month high in the country’s unemployment rate, while the Kosdaq tumbled by 1.14%. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index fell by 1%, and China’s CSI 300 was marginally lower by 0.11%.
In the US, the stock market experienced a predominantly downward trend. The S&P500 concluded the session with a 0.15% decrease, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average saw a 0.42% decline. However, the Nasdaq Composite managed a modest 0.09% gain, supported by upward movement in certain Big Tech stocks. Nvidia reached a fresh all-time high, rising by 1.7%, while Amazon and Alphabet each gained over 1.5%.
Moreover, Juniper Networks saw a significant surge of nearly 22% following reports from The Wall Street Journal suggesting that Hewlett Packard Enterprise could announce a deal to acquire the networking hardware company for approximately $13 billion within the week.
Upcoming Events:
- 2:15 PM GMT – GBP BOE Gov Bailey Speaks
- 3:00 PM GMT – USD Final Wholesale Inventories m/m
- 3:30 PM GMT – USD Crude Oil Inventories
