- Wall Street indices launched today's trading lower but have managed to recover the bulk of losses later on. S&P 500 and Dow Jones now trade 0.1% lower on the day, while Nasdaq and Russell 2000 decline 0.3%
- European stock market indices traded mostly lower today. UK FTSE 100 dropped 0.76%, Dutch AEX moved 0.65% lower, Italian FTSE MIB declined 0.27% and Spanish Ibex finished 0.45% lower. On the other hand, German DAX moved 0.25% higher and French CAC40 added 0.08%
- Cryptocurrencies had another wild day of trading. Rally on the market continued with Bitcoin jumping above $60,000 mark. Gains accelerated later on, with the most famous cryptocurrency painting a daily high near $64,000 mark
- However, a quick reversal on the crypto market occurred in the evening amid reports that Coinbase users are having trouble buying and selling crypto on the company's platform. This has triggered a Bitcoin slump from around $64,000 to below $59,000
- USD and CHF are the best performing G10 currencies, while NZD and AUD lag the most
- Reserve Bank of New Zealand left the Official Cash Rate unchanged at 5.50% during a meeting today, in-line with market expectations. NZD dropped as it was said that there is consensus among central bankers that current rates are high enough
- Energy commodities trade mixed - oil drops 0.2-0.4%, while US natural gas prices climb almost 4%
- Precious metals trade mostly lower. Silver drops 0.3%, platinum declines 1.3%, palladium slumps 1.7% and gold trades flat
- Fed Collins said that she needs to see more evidence that the disinflationary process will continue before starting to normalize policy. Collins also said that threat of inflation remaining above 2% has receded
- Fed Bostic said that he expects inflation to continue on trajectory towards 2% target but it won't a fast march, and he expects volatility. Bostic said he is comfortable being patient on policy
- Fed Williams said he expects PCE inflation of 2.00-2.25% in 2024 and 2.00% in 2025. Williams said he expects growth of 1.5% this year, as well as an uptick in unemployment rate to around 4%
- Russian deputy prime minister Novak said that suppyl and demand on the global oil market looks balanced
- US GDP growth for Q4 2023 was revised from 3.3% to 3.2% annualized. Core PCE inflation for Q4 2023 was revised from 2.0 to 2.1% annualized
- US trade balance data for January showed a deficit of $90.2 billion (exp. -$88.1 billion)
- DOE report showed a 4.2 million barrel build in US oil inventories (exp. +2.7 mb), gasoline inventories declined by 2.83 million barrels (exp. -1.5 mb), while gasoline inventories dropped 0.51 million barrels (exp. -2.1 mb)
BITCOIN has been very volatile today. The coin rallied to $64,000 before slumping back to $60,000 amid reports that Coinbase platform is having issued due to high network traffic. Source: xStation5
