Morning wrap (25.03.2024)

Wall Street indices closed Friday with minimal changes. The SP500 lost only 0.14% to 5230 points, and the Nasdaq 100 gained 0.10% to 18340 points. In both cases, the indices were trading around record levels.

Asian and Pacific indices are having a mixed session at the start of the new week. The Korean KOSPI is down 0.18%, the Australian S&P/ASX 200 is up 0.40%, and Chinese indices are gaining about 0.10%. The Japanese Nikkei is down 1.16% but still remains above the 40000-point level.

Futures contracts for European indices indicate a lower opening for the cash session on the Old Continent, with declines ranging between 0.00-0.20%.

In the forex market, there are no major changes in the first part of the day, with most exchange rates fluctuating within +-0.10%. Currencies from the Asia-Pacific region, like AUD, NZD, and JPY, are particularly stable.

Today, the minutes from the latest Bank of Japan (BoJ) meeting were published. Below are the key excerpts:

• Members agreed that the stage where the probability of sustainably achieving the inflation target is low has not yet been reached.

• Members shared the view that the chances of achieving 2% inflation are gradually increasing, so if the positive wage and inflation cycle is confirmed, the bank will permanently end the stage of negative interest rates and other unconventional easing measures.

• Some members stated that the BOJ is not under pressure to accelerate rate hikes at the pace observed in Western countries.

• The minutes did not provide much new information. As a result, movements in the JPY are limited. The Japanese Yen is not experiencing significant changes today, with USDJPY trading around 151.200.

Masato Kanda, Japan's Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs and currency diplomat, warned on Monday against speculators trying to sell off the yen, stating that the JPY's weakness does not reflect fundamentals.

China has introduced guidelines for the gradual phasing out of American microprocessors from Intel and AMD in government PCs and servers, reported the Financial Times on Sunday. The public procurement guidelines also aim to sideline Microsoft's Windows operating system and foreign database software in favor of domestic options, according to the report.

In the cryptocurrency market, we observe a slight rebound. Over the weekend, Bitcoin returned above the $67,000 level, and Ethereum rebounded slightly less but still remains below the $3,500 level. Slightly larger increases are observed in smaller projects, whose total market capitalization exceeded $740 billion.

Increases are particularly noticeable in projects from the RWA (real world assets) sector, i.e., the tokenization of real assets. The catalyst was the announcement on March 19 that BlackRock plans to launch the "BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund" focused on the RWA sector. However, the total size of the fund was not disclosed.