- European indices finished today's session higher, with DAX 30 added 1.47% as upbeat corporate earnings from Heineken, Danone and ASML overshadowed (at least for now) concerns over inflation and slowing economic activity.
- Hawkish comments from ECB members from Kazaks and Nage support the euro. Fed Daly spoke in similar manner, however this did not provide any relief for dollar bulls
- Mixed moods prevail on Wall Street, where Dow Jones rose 0.92%, S&P 500 gains 0.25%, while Nasdaq is trading 0.84% lower after a slew of mixed quarterly results.
- Procter & Gamble recorded its sharpest YoY sales gain in two decades and IBM earnings also topped market projections. Netflix stock plunged nearly 40% after reporting it lost 200K subscribers during the first quarter, which dragged down the entire tech sector today. Also Baker Hughes posted weak figures.
- Tesla and United Airlines are among the companies due to report later today.
- German producer prices inflation jumped to record 30.9% in March, while car sales in the EU tanked 20.5% from a year earlier.
- Canada's annual inflation rate accelerated faster than expected in March, hitting a 31-year high of 6.7%.
- Existing home sales in the US fell 2.7% mom to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 5.77 million in March, the lowest since June of 2020 and compared to forecasts of 5.8 million.
- US crude oil inventories tumbled 8.02 million barrels to 413.7 million barrels the most since January of 2021 and compared with analysts’ estimates of 2.471 million increase.
- Precious metals are trading slightly higher. Gold returned above the $1950 level, while silver trades around the flatline.
- AUD and NZD are the best performing major currencies while USD and CHF lag the most
- Cryptocurrencies trade slightly lower. Ethereum trades around $3,070 while Bitcoin broke below $41,300
The mood in the markets today was quite good, although it was certainly fragile. Crude oil prices moved lower, despite the sharp decline in US inventories. Commodities remained under pressure despite a slightly weaker US dollar. Bond yields pulled back today, which could have contributed to recovery in the stock market.
NZDUSD broke above the upper limit of the descending channel and is currently testing the upper boundary of the 1:1 structure around 0.6815. Should a break higher occur, the road towards resistance at 0.6840 will be left open. This level coincides with 38.2% Fibonacci retracement of the upward wave launched at the end of January 2022. Source: xStation5
