Morning Wrap (13.02.2024)

• Wall Street indices finished yesterday's trading mixed - S&P 500 dropped 0.1%, Nasdaq declined 0.3%, while Dow Jones gained 0.3% and small-cap Russell 2000 rallied 1.7%
• Indices from Asia-Pacific traded higher today - Nikkei rallied almost 3%, Kospi moved 1.1% higher and Nifty 50 jumped 0.5%. Australian S&P/ASX 200 was a laggard with 0.1% drop
• European index futures point to a slightly lower opening of the cash session on the Old Continent today
• According to Financial Times report, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida is intensifying efforts to organize a summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un. The aim of the summit is to secure release of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea decades ago
• According to US military, Yemen's Houthis struck a ship in the Red Sea that was transporting Brazilian corn to Iran
• RBA Kohler said that inflation in Australia is coming down but it still remains too high
• NZD dropped after RBNZ released inflation expectations data for Q1 2024. 1-year inflation expectations stand at 3.2%, down from 3.6%, while 2-year inflation expectation stand at 2.5%, down from 2.8% 
• Japanese PPI inflation for January came in at 0.0% MoM (exp. 0.1% MoM). On an annual basis, PPI reached 0.2% YoY (exp. 0.1% YoY)
• Bitcoin holds onto yesterday's gains and continues to trade in the $50,000 area
• Energy commodities trade higher - US natural gas prices advance 0.5% while oil gains 0.3%
• Precious metals also trade higher - gold gains 0.1%, silver trades 0.4% higher and palladium jumps 0.8%. Platinum trades flat
• USD and CAD are the best performing major currencies, while NZD and AUD lag the most

NZD drops after RBNZ data for Q1 2024 showed a drop in inflation expectations. NZDUSD continues to pull back from the upper limit of the bearish channel. Source: xStation5