- Wall Street indices have recovered from earlier declines and are trading little changed on the day. S&P 500 trades flat, Dow Jones gains 0.1%, Nasdaq drops 0.1% and small-cap Russell 2000 declines 0.6%
- European stock market indices traded mixed today - German DAX and French CAC40 finished flat, Dutch AEX plunged 1.1%, Italian FTSE MIB declined 0.3%, Spanish IBEX gained 0.2% and Polish WIG20 jumped 0.8%
- USD recovered some ground today ahead of tomorrow's release of US CPI report for February
- Rally on the cryptocurrencies market continues with Bitcoin climbing to a new record high above $72,000 and ETHEREUM topping $4,000 for the first time since late-December 2021
- US natural gas prices dropped in spite of new weather forecasts pointing to below-average temperatures in the large part of US mainland over the next 8-14 days
- Japanese yen gained after Jiji reported that Bank of Japan may abandon yield curve control mechanism
- ECB Kazimir suggested that European Central Bank should wait until June meeting with delivering the first rate cut as risk of inflation re-accelerating remains and Bank should wait for more data to be sure it is heading towards the target
- BoE Mann said that there is a long way to go into, inflation pressure are in line with 2% inflation target
- White House estimates real GDP growth at 1.8% in calendar 2025, in calendar 2028 and 2.2% in 2034. Unemployment rate is seen at 4.0% in calendar 2025, and 3.8% in 2028-2034 period
- According to Bloomberg report, ECB officials are leaning towards keepin minimum reserve requirement for banks unchanged at 1%
- Meta Platforms drops around 4% after former US President said he is against banning TikTok as such a move would benefit Facebook, which he sees as 'enemy of the people'
- NOK dropped after Norway's CPI inflation report showed an unexpected slowdown from 4.7 to 4.5% YoY in February (exp. 4.9% YoY). Core CPI slowed from 5.3 to 4.9% YoY (exp. 5.2% YoY)
- Spanish retail sales increased 0.3% YoY in January (exp. +3.0% YoY)
- Japanese GDP report for Q4 2023 showed an unexpected growth of 0.1% QoQ (exp. -0.1% QoQ). On an annual basis, GDP increased 1.2% YoY (exp. 1.0% YoY)
ETHEREUM climbed above $4,000 for the first time since late-December 2021. Source: xStation5
