Daily summary: Mixed sentiments before next week US inflation data

• Sentiments on Wall Street are mixed ahead of a key inflation reading next week. The S&P500 is gaining 0,2%, the Nasdaq 100 is losing 0.75% and the Dow Jones is trading 0.33% higher.
• Statements from the Fed's Patrick Harker improved investor sentiment a bit after the Philadelphia Fed chief indicated that 50bp hikes are not the right pace for the moment, wage increases are unlikely to translate into inflation and the chances of a soft landing for the economy have increased;
• The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index surprised by rising above expectations, the reading indicated 66.4 points versus 65 expected. Short-term inflation expectations rose to 4.2% from 3.9% previously. U.S. CPI inflation in December excluding food and energy prices was revised upward to +0.4% m/m vs. +0.3% previously;
• Powerful declines were reported by Lyft (LYFT.US). The company reported EPS loss versus the profit expected by analysts, and is losing the competition for market share to Uber (UBER.US). Alphabet (GOOGL.US) shares are trading flat, after 2 of their worst trading sessions since 2008;
• Germany's DAX closed the session down 1.39%. Britain's FTSE, which managed to rise above historic highs in recent days, also caught breathlessness, losing 0.35% today;
• The dollar is trying to recover ahead of the weekend. Today, the US currency managed to strengthen more than 0.5% against the EUR, or GBP. The USD only discounted against CAD, with the USDCAD currency pair adding 0.65% in the evening hours;
• Data from the Canadian labor market came in clearly better than expected.  The January change in employment in the Canadian economy came in at 150,000 vs. 15,000 forecast and 104,000 in December 2022, while the unemployment rate maintained its December level of 5% vs. 5.1% expected;
• EURUSD is testing a key medium-term support zone in the region of 1.0660 - 1.0700. A rebound of the price here could generate another upward wave, but a break of the support could contribute to a change in sentiment and accelerate declines;
• According to media reports, the new BoJ Governor Ueda said that the current policy of the bank is appropriate and dovish monetary policy should be maintained. As a result, the Japanese currency continues to weaken;
• Oil traded at a sizable premium on Friday on reports of a production cut by Russia. The country has decided to cut oil production by 500,000 barrels per day. Both WTI and Brent prices are up more than 2.5%. We will pay almost $80 for a barrel of WTI today, while Brent costs $86.4
• Gold and silver are still under bearish pressure. Gold is near key support zone at $1860 level (previous peaks from the beginning of January) and silver is at $22 level, near peaks from November 2022. Still strong USD indicated negative sentiments on precious metals market;
• Cryptocurrencies record a marked weakening. The SEC imposed a $30 million fine on the Kraken exchange, shutting down its staking services, and SEC chairman Gary Gensler reported that a similar fate could await any entity providing staking without regulatory approval. In addition, news has come out about the regulatory investigation against emitents of the so-called stablecoins Circle (USDC) and Paxos (BUSD);
• Bitcoin is trading at $21,700 and Ethereum at $1520, and both cryptocurrencies are near short-term key resistances. Shares of crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN.US) and Silvergate Capital (SI.US) are also seeing declines.

US100 broke support 12492 - 12533 points yesterday, knocking out the 1:1 geometry. However, despite the deepening of the discount today, the declines slowed down at the height of the next important support zone at 12240 points. The area marked in red is due to previous price reactions and the average EMA 100 (red line). Source: xStation5