Morning wrap (18.03.2024)

• Indices from Asia-Pacific traded higher at the beginning of a new week - Nikkei rallied 2.5%, S&P/ASX 200 added 0.1%, Kospi moved 0.7% higher and Nifty 50 traded flat. Indices from China gained 0.3-1.1%
• European index futures point to a higher opening of the cash session on the Old Continent today
• US index futures also trade higher, with S&P 500 futures trying to climb back above 5,200 pts
• ECB de Cos said that European Central Bank may start cutting interest rates in June
• Market consensus now is for Bank of Japan to exit negative rates at a meeting tomorrow, after last week's wages talks resulted in the biggest pay hikes in decades
• Nomura and MUFJ also expects Bank of Japan to end yield curve control tomorrow
• According to JPMorgan, Bitcoin allocation to investors' portfolio, adjusted for volatility, has now surpassed gold
• Chinese retail sales were 5.5% YoY higher in February (exp. 5.2% YoY), industrial production was up 7.0% YoY (exp. 5.0% YoY) and urban investments were 4.2% YoY higher (exp. 3.2% YoY)
• Chinese unemployment rate increased from 5.1 to 5.3% in January (exp. 5.1% YoY)
• Japanese machinery orders dropped 1.7% MoM in January (exp. -1.0% MoM)
• South Korea's semiconductor exports were 62.9% YoY higher in February, with exports of memory chips being 108.1% YoY higher
• Major cryptocurrencies are trading mixed at the beginning of a new week - Bitcoin gains 0.2%, Ethereum drops 0.6%, Ripple adds 0.6% and Dogecoin drops 2.0%
• Energy commodities trade higher - oil gains 0.4-0.5%, while US natural gas prices climb over 2%
• Precious metals pull back - gold and silver drop 0.4%, platinum drops 1% and palladium is down 0.8%
• NZD and CAD are the best performing major currencies, while JPY and CHF lag the most

Nikkei (JP225) surged 2% today, supported by weaker yen. Index broke above the upper limit of market geometry in 38,900 pts area and rallied to the highest level since March 8, 2024. Source: xStation5