Morning Wrap (15.01.2024)

Asia-Pacific indices are having a mixed session. Chinese indices are down about 0.30-0.80%. The Japanese Nikkei 225 index is up 0.90%, the Korean Kospi is down 0.20%, while the Australian S&P ASX 200 is up 0.10%.

In the first part of today's forex market session, we also do not observe major changes. The session was calm, and most currency pairs limited changes to a range from -0.10 to 0.10%.

The euro is among the stronger currencies, and the Japanese yen (JPY) is among the weakest. The EURUSD pair is up 0.12% to 1.09630.

Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party won the 2024 presidential election in Taiwan on Saturday with 40% of the votes, but the ruling party failed to maintain a parliamentary majority. No party has a decisive majority, with Kuomintang having 52 seats, one more than the DPP.

A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department congratulated the Taiwanese "once again proving the strength of their robust democratic system and independent electoral process."

On Monday, the Pacific island nation of Nauru announced today that it will break diplomatic relations with Taiwan and formally recognize mainland China as an ally.

North Korea's Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui arrived in Russia for talks with her counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in connection with deepening economic, political, and military ties between the two countries.

North Korea fired at least one ballistic missile into the waters off the eastern coast of the Korean Peninsula, South Korea and Japan reported. The heightened tension has been maintained recently after Pyongyang's launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile and the first military spy satellite in the area.

The Chief Economist of the European Central Bank (ECB) Philip Lane said in a Saturday interview that the central bank will have all key data by June to make a decision on the first of a likely series of interest rate cuts. The banker noted that acting too quickly could be even worse in consequences and ineffective.

The President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Austan Goolsbee, said that financial markets have somewhat outpaced policymakers, assuming an aggressive path of interest rate cuts this year. The banker emphasized that decisions on interest rates will be influenced only by actual data.

In the cryptocurrency market, we observe a calming of sentiments. Bitcoin rebounds and gains 2.30% today to the level of 42600 USD.