Morning wrap (04.08.2023)

• US indices finished yesterday's trading lower but off the session lows. S&P 500 dropped 0.25%, Nasdaq moved 0.10% lower and Dow Jones declined 0.19%. Small-cap Russell 2000 traded around 0.4% down

• Indices from Asia-Pacific traded mostly higher today - Nifty 50 added 0.5%, Kospi traded 0.1% higher, S&P/ASX 200 traded flat and indices from China gained up to 1.3%. Nikkei was a laggard with a 0.2% drop

• DAX futures point to a higher opening of the European cash session

• The Chinese Ministry of Commerce said that it will drop punitive tariffs on Australian barley imports, starting from Saturday, August 5. Tariffs were put in place as an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures 3 years ago

• Russian Deputy Prime Minister Novak said that his country will cut oil exports by 300k bpd in September

• People's Bank of China governor Gongsheng met with domestic property developers and promised to help companies meet 'reasonable financing needs'

• RBA Statement on Monetary Policy showed that Bank sees possibility that further tightening may be required but full impact of the already-delivered tightening is yet to be felt.

• Chinese authorities conducted an inspection of Morgan Stanley Securities offices on Monday as part of an anti-money laundering and investors suitability probe. According to Global Times, more on-site inspections of financial firms' premises are planned

• Apple traded 2% lower in the after-hours trading after company reported slightly better-than-expected earnings and sales for Q2 2023. However, disappointing iPhone sales forecast was a drag on share price

• Amazon gained over 8% in the after-hours trading after reporting Q2 2023 results. Sales, earnings and margin beat expectations. Moreover, company lifted Q3 revenue forecast to $138-143 billion USD - above $138.3 billion expected by the market

• Major cryptocurrencies are trading lower - Bitcoin drops 0.1%, Ethereum declines 0.2% and Ripple pulls back 0.4%

• Oil trades little changed while US natural gas prices climb 0.3%

• Precious metals gain - gold adds 0.2%, silver trades 0.1% higher and platinum jumps 0.3%

• AUD and GBP are the best performing G10 currencies while CHF and USD are top laggards

Nasdaq-100 futures (US100) is attempting to make a break above the 50-hour moving average (green line) following solid results from Amazon and in spite of a mixed post-earnings performance of Apple. Source: xStation5