Morning wrap (02.12.2022)

• US indices finished yesterday's trading mostly lower but the scale of moves was small. Dow Jones dropped 0.56%, S&P 500 moved 0.09% lower and Russell 2000 finished 0.11% down. Nasdaq was outperformer with a 0.13% gain

• Indices from Asia-Pacific traded lower today. Nikkei dropped 1.6%, S&P/ASX 200 traded 0.7% down, Kospi plunged 1.8% and Nifty 50 moved 0.9% lower. Indices from China traded up to 0.5% lower

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

• G7 is said to be moving close to agreeing on a $60 per barrel price cap on Russian oil. The agreement will also include provision that will keep price cap at 5% below market price

• Fed Bowman said that slowing of rate hike will allow Fed to assess impact of actions it has undertaken so far

• Fed Barr said that inflation remains far too high. He also said that Fed still has some work to do on rates later this year and in 2023

• BoJ Governor Kuroda said that global inflation is expected to gradually slow in 2023 while global growth is expected to gradually pick-up

• RBA Governor Lowe said that policy lag in the current tightening cycle will be longer than in previous cycles

• South Korean CPI inflation decelerated from 5.7 to 5.0% YoY in November (exp. 5.2% YoY), the lowest reading in 7 months. Core CPI accelerated from 4.2 to 4.3% YoY (exp. 4.5% YoY), the highest reading since December 2008

• Cryptocurrencies trade mixed with major coins trading slightly lower. Bitcoin drops 0.2%, Ethereum trades 0.3% lower and Dogecoin dives 2.8%

• Oil is trading little changed on the day while precious metals pull back slightly

• Antipodean currencies (AUD and NZD) are top performers today while CHF and CAD lag the most

Dovish speech from Powell on Wednesday, followed by dovish remarks from Bowman yesterday, allowed EURUSD to break above 1.05 handle for the first time since end-June 2022. Source: xStation5