- Stock indices in the Asia-Pacific region traded higher during Wednesday's session. Korea's KOSPI gained nearly 0.19% intraday, while Japan's Nikkei rallied 2.01%. The Hang Seng is doing relatively well today, trading up 1.31% intraday.
- European futures point to a higher opening in today's European cash session.
- S&P and Fitch did not change China's rating or outlook, after Moody's decided yesterday to downgrade the outlook to negative.
- Moody's changes outlook for 18 Chinese non-financial companies to negative (including Alibaba and Tencent).
- The market is seeing further reports of currency interventions by Chinese state-owned banks to support the yuan.
- Australian Q3 GDP at +0.2% q/q (vs. +0.4% expected)
- Relative to other currencies, the Japanese yen and the euro are currently performing poorly. Slightly better sentiment can be seen on Antipode currencies, among others. The EURUSD pair is currently trading slightly above the 1.079 barrier.
- Today's energy commodity price momentum is somewhat subdued. On an intraday basis during European morning trading, Brent crude oil is gaining 0.26%, while WTI oil is up 0.24%. Natural gas fared worse, losing 0.19%.
- API survey data on crude oil inventories show an increase in oil stocks compared to an expected decline.
- Bitcoin is losing nearly 1.68% intraday, partially wiping out the powerful upward momentum that took the major cryptocurrency above the $44,000 zone last night.
- Precious metals are trading higher, with gold gaining 0.28% and silver gaining 0.46%.
- On Wednesday's macro calendar, we can find Eurozone retail sales data, Governor Bailey's BoE speech, the polish MPC's interest rate decisions, the ADP report from the USA, the BoC's interest rate decision, and EIA data on US crude oil inventories, among others.
Bitcoin is losing close to 1.68% during today's session and is trading between a resistance zone at $44,000 and support near the $43,000 zone. The cryptocurrency is trading near its highest levels since April 2022. Source: xStation
