Daily Summary: PPI Inflation slows down, but EURUSD approaches 1.10

📈 Equity Markets

• The Warsaw blue-chip index recorded a phenomenal session and established a new historical ATH, breaking permanently above the 4,300 level. Strong demand for domestic equities was driven by favorable Statistics Poland (GUS) data on Polish GDP growth and capital inflows into emerging markets.
• Western European stock exchanges remained close to their record highs, though sentiment was dampened by the luxury goods sector. The owner of the Cartier brand, Richemont group, came under particular selling pressure, losing ground despite publishing relatively solid financial results.
• Across the ocean, Wall Street attempted to rebound from a tough week, but buying pressure met clear resistance from the technology sector. Investors wrestled with rising uncertainty around semiconductor giants, which offset the optimism stemming from lower inflation readings.
• As of 7:38 PM, the S&P 500 stands around 7,566, down 0.72% for the day and up 2.2% for the week; the Nasdaq 100 is near 27,967, down 1.52% for the day while gaining 3.17% over the week; the WIG20 is around 4,312, up 0.42% for the day and gaining 3.63% across the week; and the Dow Jones is at 52,342, down 0.15% for the day and up 1.87% over the week.

🏛️ Macroeconomics and Central Banks

• The October producer price inflation report in the US brought long-awaited cooling, signaling reduced cost pressure at early stages of the supply chain. Headline PPI came in at 6.5% year-over-year versus the forecast 6.6%, while monthly PPI reached 0.3%. The core reading held steady at 5.0% YoY, which initially triggered a drop in Treasury yields and alleviated fears of aggressive interest rate hikes.
• A series of speeches by Federal Reserve officials provided a hawkish counterweight to macro data, dampening excessive market optimism. Mary Daly noted that US consumers are starting to lose purchasing power and that the balance of risks still favors maintaining a restrictive monetary stance. Meanwhile, Austan Goolsbee emphasized that the investment boom surrounding data centers and AI infrastructure is generating additional price pressure in the economy, making it harder to bring inflation down to the 2% target.
• Remarks from European Central Bank representatives also pointed to persistent pro-inflationary risks. Joachim Nagel assessed that the economic outlook for the Eurozone has deteriorated since September, and rising inflation expectations could force the ECB to tighten monetary policy parameters once again.
• On the trade front, the first official talks between US and Chinese representatives took place within the joint trade council, coinciding with diplomatic preparations for the ASEAN summit.

💻 Corporate News

• The semiconductor sector remained heavily impacted by executive turmoil at Nvidia, whose stock dropped following Jensen Huang's resignation as CEO. Media reports indicated that one of the top candidates under consideration in the succession process is the current head of Arm, Rene Haas.
• Shares of Microsoft stabilized following a Thursday-Friday global outage that blocked thousands of users from accessing office services and Teams. The tech giant officially confirmed the issue had been resolved, explaining that the incident resulted from network configuration errors during bandwidth upgrades rather than a cyberattack.
• Shares of Palo Alto Networks gained strong support from analysts, with KeyBanc raising its forecasts for the company and emphasizing its strategic position in securing artificial intelligence tools. Meanwhile, growing chip competitor Cerebras presented promising operational prospects, though management acknowledged the industry is coping with delays in completing large-scale data centers.
• As of 7:38 PM, Apple is around $357.90, up 0.87% for the day and gaining 4.53% across the week; Nvidia is near $161.95, down 2.57% for the day and losing 13.21% over the week; while Microsoft stands near $523.92, up 0.46% for the day and down 1.25% for the week.

💱 Foreign Exchange Markets

• The US dollar traded with heightened volatility, responding first with weakness to lower wholesale inflation before strengthening on hawkish comments from FOMC members. The DXY index steadily returned to an upward trend, gaining as leading investment banks revised their interest rate projections.
• The Polish złoty showed signs of weakness in the broader FX market, struggling against domestic and external risk factors that limited the spillover of positive sentiment from the Warsaw Stock Exchange into the Polish currency.
• In the yen market, the Japanese currency experienced a sharp surge amid suspicions of direct currency intervention by the BoJ.
• As of 7:38 PM, the US Dollar Index is near 103.29, up 0.2% for the day and gaining 1.12% across the week.

🛢️ Commodities

• The crude oil market consolidated around local lows, confronting conflicting signals from the geopolitical environment and physical supply-demand balances. The White House's decision to extend transport waivers for energy commodities coincided with reports of steady active US rig counts, which stood at 463 according to Baker Hughes data.
• Selling pressure dominated precious metals, where silver extended its recent decline, retreating further from the $50 per ounce threshold. The sell-off was driven by dollar strength and profit-taking by institutional investors following dynamic gains in previous weeks.
• The EIA weekly report on US natural gas inventories showed a storage build of 61 billion cubic feet, coming in just below market expectations.
• As of 7:38 PM, silver is at $49.06, down 1.91% for the day and losing 5.42% for the week; WTI crude oil is at $88.86, up 0.21% for the day while losing 1.63% over the week.

🪙 Cryptocurrencies

• The digital asset market was hit by a sharp sell-off in which Bitcoin suffered its steepest decline in months, sliding below key technical support levels. Sentiment collapsed dramatically, driving the Crypto Fear & Greed Index down to just 20 points, signaling extreme fear among investors. Reports of a quarterly loss at Metaplanet due to forced BTC reserve write-downs added further pressure.
• As of 7:38 PM, Bitcoin is trading around $68,728, down 3.58% for the day and losing 7.48% for the week.