- US indices finished yesterday's trading higher - S&P 500 gained 1.4%, Nasdaq rallied 2.2% and small-cap Russell 2000 traded 1.9% higher. Dow Jones was a laggard and closed 'just' 0.6% higher
- Indices from Asia-Pacific traded mostly higher today - Nikkei gained 1.2%, Nifty 50 and S&P/ASX 200 traded 0.9% higher, while Kospi dropped 0.3%. Indices from China traded mixed
- European index futures point to a higher opening of the cash session on the Old Continent today
- According to Shippingwatch report, some of the smaller shipping companies have made agreement with Yemeni Houthis to prevent their ships from being targeted in the Red Sea
- According to Nikkei report, Bank of Japan could have been a net seller of stocks in 2023 as markets stabilized and ETF purchases to support it were not needed
- Fed Bowman said she is still willing to hike rates if progress on inflation stalls. However, she also said that she sees a chance for inflation to continue to come down even without further rate hikes
- CPI inflation in Japanese Tokyo area decelerated from 2.3% to 2.1% YoY in December (exp. 2.1% YoY)
- Japanese household spending dropped 2.9% YoY in November (exp. -2.2% YoY)
- Australian retail sales jumped 2.0% MoM in November (exp. 1.2% MoM
- Australian building approvals climbed 1.6% MoM in November (exp. -1.9% MoM)
- Major cryptocurrencies trade a touch lower - Bitcoin drops 0.5%, Ethereum declines 1.5% and Dogecoin trades 1.4% lower
- Energy commodities are pulling back - oil drops 0.5% while US natural gas prices are down 0.3%
- Precious metals trade higher today - gold gains 0.2%, platinum adds 0.4% and palladium jumps 0.7%. Silver trade flat
- JPY and EUR are the best performing major currencies while NZD and AUD lag the most
AUD gained after release of better-than-expected retail sales data. However, AUDUSD erased all of the gains later on and in now trading lower on the day. Source: xStation5
