Daily summary: Bitcoin tests $30,000, First Republic Bank deepens sell-off

• Wall Street indices traded slightly lower with S&P 500, Dow Jones and Russell 2000 dropping 0.2-0.5% at press time

• Tech-heavy Nasdaq bucked the trend and gained after Microsoft and Alphabet reported better-than-expected results yesterday in the evening, setting the tone for the session today

• Meta Platforms is set to release earnings after market close today and it could be another important driver for tech sector

• Activision Blizzard dropped around 10% after a UK regulator blocked the company's planned takeover by Microsoft. Activision decided to release Q1 earnings earlier than planned but even solid results failed to lift sentiment towards the stock

• Boeing trades around 3% higher after company reported lower-than-expected cash burn for Q1 2023 and said it plans to boost production rates this year

• First Republic Bank dropped another 20% today as media hinted that US government is unwilling to intervene and that any potential buyer may require government guarantees for the deal

• European stock market indices traded lower today with German DAX and UK FTSE 100 dropping 0.5% while French CAC40 was almost 0.9% down

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

• Cryptocurrencies are on the rise today with Bitcoin gaining 5% and attempting to deliver a clear break back above $30,000 mark

• Energy commodities trade lower on the day - Brent dropped below $80 per barrel, reached the lowest level since March and close bullish price gap triggered by unexpected OPEC+ output cut at the beginning of April

• Gold briefly traded above the $2,000 mark after CNBC reported that the US government is unwilling to intervene and save First Republic Bank. However, gains have been erased since and now gold is trading 0.5% lower on the day

• Riksbank hiked interest rates by 50 basis points today, in-line with market expectations. Main Swedish rate was hiked to 3.50% - the highest level since late-2008

• US durable goods orders jumped 3.2% MoM in March (exp. 0.7% MoM) while orders excluding transportation were 0.3% MoM higher (exp. -0.2% MoM)

• Australian CPI inflation decelerated from 1.9 to 1.4% QoQ in Q1 2023 (exp. 1.3% QoQ)

• EIA report showed a bigger-than-expected 5.05 million barrel draw in US oil inventories. However, it was smaller than 6.08 million barrel drop signaled by API data yesterday

BITCOIN bounced off the zone marked with 50-session moving average and 23.6% retracement of the downward move launched in November 2021. Coin extends recovery move today and is attempting to climb above $30,000 mark. Source: xStation5