Morning wrap (13.07.2022)

• US indices finished yesterday's trading lower. S&P 500 dropped 0.92%, Dow Jones moved 0.62% lower and Nasdaq slumped 0.95%. Russell 2000 dropped 0.22%

• Indices from Asia-Pacific traded higher during today's session. Nikkei gained 0.4%, S&P/ASX 200 moved 0.1% higher and Kospi added 0.5%. Indices from China traded up to 0.6% higher

• DAX futures point to a lower opening of the European cash session

• Reserve Bank of New Zealand delivered a 50 basis point rate hike, putting the official cash rate at 2.50%. Decision was in-line with market expectations. RBNZ sees further tightening as appropriate

• German Deputy Finance Minister said that his country will stop using Russian coal by August and Russian oil by December

• IMF lowered forecasts for US growth in 2022 to 2.3%, down from 2.9% in June estimate. Forecast for 2023 was lowered from 1.7 to 1.0%

• Chinese exports were 13.2% YoY higher in the January-June period while imports were 4.8% YoY higher. Trade surplus for the first half of 2022 reached 2.48 trillion yuan

• Twitter sued Elon Musk and wants court to force billionaire to buy the company at agreed price of $54.20 per share

• API report pointed to a 4.76 million barrel build in US oil inventories (exp. -1.9 mb)

• Cryptocurrencies are trading slightly higher. Bitcoin gains 1.1% and tests $19,500 area while Ethereum jumps 2% and trades near $1,050 area

• Energy commodities advance. Brent gains 0.6% and trades near $99.60 per barrel

• Precious metals post small gains. Platinum adds 0.1%, silver gains 0.3% and gold trades flat

• GBP and AUD are the best performing major currencies while JPY and CHF lag the most

NZDUSD dropped following RBNZ decision (orange circle). However, bulls managed to recover all of the losses later on and the pair trades back near pre-announcement levels, slightly below the 0.6135 resistance zone. Source: xStation5