Morning wrap (15.03.2023)

• US indices finished yesterday's session significantly higher as markets recovered following the SVB-related sell-off. S&P 500 gained 1.65%, Dow Jones moved 1.06% higher and Nasdaq rallied 2.14%. Russell 2000 jumped 1.87%

• Indices from Asia-Pacific traded higher as well - S&P/ASX 200 added 0.9%, Kospi gained 1.3%, Nifty 50 moved 0.3% higher and Nikkei finished flat. Indices from China traded up to 1.2% higher

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

• According to Wall Street Journal report, Federal Reserve considers imposing tougher rules for mid-sized banks, following SVB collapse

• The United States summoned the Russian ambassador in response to yesterday's incident over the Black Sea that led to a US drone crash. Russia calls the incident a provocation

• Reuters reports that Goldman Sachs bought SVB's Treasury bond portfolio before US authorities took control over the bank. Portfolio is said to have a book value of almost $24 billion 

• Saudi energy minister says OPEC+ will stick to its production cuts in full-2023

• Bank of Japan minutes showed that BoJ members expect inflation to slow in the second half of the fiscal year and that more time was needed to assess impact of BoJ actions on markets

• People's Bank of China left 1-year MLF rate unchanged at 2.75%

• Chinese industrial production increased 2.4% YoY in February (exp. 2.7% YoY), retail sales were 3.5% YoY higher (exp. 3.4% YoY) and urban investments climbed 5.5% YoY (exp. 4.3% YoY)

• API report pointed to a 1.15 million barrel build in US oil inventories (exp. 0.6 mb)

• Cryptocurrencies are trading higher but gains are not as big as they were yesterday. Bitcoin gains 0.5%, Ethereum adds 0.2% and Dogecoin trades 0.9% higher

• Precious metals trade mixed - gold and platinum drop 0.2% each while silver gains 0.2%

• Oil is trading around 1% higher while US natural gas prices hold flat

• EUR and CAD are the best performing major currencies while JPY and NZD lag the most

DAX futures (DE30) are trading more or less flat ahead of the European cash session open. German index managed to defend a psychological 15,000 pts area and launch a recovery move off it. The 50-session moving average (green line) in the 15,300 pts is a key near-term resistance to watch now. Source: xStation5