- Wall Street indices are trading little changed today - Dow Jones gains 0.2%, S&P 500 trades 0.1% higher while Nasdaq drops 0.2%. Small-cap Russell 2000 jumps 0.7%
- Indices from China rallied today on reports that Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission plans to update China's top leadership on market conditions and initiatives, boosting hopes for new measures aimed at supporting domestic equities
- European stock market indices traded higher today - German DAX gained almost 0.8%, UK FTSE 100 jumped 0.9%, French CAC40 traded over 0.6% higher while Italian FTSE MIB moved 0.5% higher
- US President Joe Biden said that some progress was made in Israel-Hamas negotiations on a deal to release hostages and pause fighting in the Gaza Strip
- Reserve Bank of Australia left interest rates unchanged at a meeting today, with the main rate staying at 4.35%. Decision was in-line with market expectations. RBA noted that outlook is still highly uncertain and that further rates hikes cannot be ruled out
- US Treasury adopted a new rule that requires proprietary high-frequency traders as well as other firms, who regularly trade in US government bonds, to register as broker-dealers. The move will subject those firms to stricter oversight rules
- ECB Vujcic said that it is important for ECB's credibility to be right about rate cuts, and that ECB should not rush the start of the rate cut cycle
- Fed Mester said she expects the Federal Reserve to gain the confidence to cut rates later this year. Mester added that the recent news on inflation has been encouraging
- Fed Kashkari said that recession is not his base case scenario. Kashkari noted that while big progress was made on inflation, the job is not done yet
- Canadian building permits slumped 14% MoM in December (exp. +1.2% MoM)
- Canadian Ivey PMI index ticked higher from 56.3 to 56.5 in January (exp. 55.0)
- German factory orders jumped 8.9% MoM in December (exp. 0.0% MoM)
- Euro area retail sales were 1.1% MoM lower in December (exp. -1.0% MoM)
- Japanese household spending declined 2.5% YoY in December (exp. -2.0% YoY)
- Major cryptocurrencies trade higher today - Bitcoin gains 1.5%, Ethereum jumps 2.7% and Dogecoin adds 1.2%
- Energy commodities trade mixed - oil gains 0.8% while US natural gas prices drop 1.9%
- Precious metals gain - gold and silver trade 0.5% higher, while platinum rallies 1.8%
- AUD and JPY are the best performing major currencies while USD and CHF lag the most
Australian dollar gains after RBA said that further rate hikes cannot be ruled out. AUDUSD bounces off the 0.6500 support zone today, fully erasing yesterday's declines. Source: xStation5
