- Wall Street indices are trading lower today with all major US benchmarks dropping over 1%. Sell-off is driven by a continued pick-up in yields and mounting hawkish expectations
- US JOLTS report showed a surge in job openings from 8.92 million in July (revised higher from 8.827 million) to 9.61 million in August, while market expected 8.815 million
- Surge in JOLTS signaled that US labor market may not be cooling after all and triggered another jump in US yields, which supported USD and put pressure on equities
- 10-year US Treasury yields are up 10 basis points today and are hovering near 4.80% - the highest level since mid-2007
- USDJPY climbed to 150.00 after JOLTS report was released - the highest level since October 2022. Shortly after touching this level, which previously triggered BoJ interventions, a massive slump on the pair occurred with USDJPY dropping 2% in a matter of minutes
- European stock market indices finished today's trading significantly lower. German DAX and French CAC40 dropped 1%, Spanish IBEX was down 1.6%, Italian FTSE MIB declined 1.3% while Dutch AEX moved 0.6% lower
- AUD dropped after RBA decided to keep rates unchanged and failed to provide a hawkish guidance for future meetings
- ECB Valimaki said that further rate hike in euro area cannot be ruled out
- Fed's Bostic said he would be open to a review of the 2% inflation target but only after it has been reached. Bostic also said that he expects one rate cut in 2024 by the end of the year
- Fed Mester said that she expects US inflation to hit the 2% target by the end of 2025. Mester also said that she is in favor of a hike at next FOMC meeting should current economic situation persist
- Energy commodities are trading higher today with oil adding 0.7-0.8% and US natural gas prices moving over 3% higher
- Precious metals traded lower amid USD strengthening and pick-up in yields - gold drops 0.1%, platinum trades 0.9% lower and palladium dives over 2%. Silver is outperformer with a 0.8% gain
- GBP and JPY are the best performing major currencies while AUD and NZD lag the most
USDJPY slumped after touching the 150.00 mark. Pace and magnitude of the move suggests that Japanese authorities may have intervened to support domestic currency. Source: xStation5
