Morning wrap (17.03.2022)

• In spite of hawkish Fed, US indices managed to finish yesterday's session with solid gains. S&P 500 gained 2.24%, Dow Jones moved 1.55% higher and Nasdaq rallied 3.77%. Russell 2000 jumped 3.14%

• FOMC delivered a 25 bp rate hike yesterday and hinted that decision on balance sheet reduction may be announced as soon as next meeting (May). Dot-plot showed median expectation for at least 150 bp of tightening this year

• Stocks in Asia rallied following lead from Wall Street. Nikkei gained 3.5%, S&P/ASX 200 jumped 1% and Kospi added 1.6%. Indices from China continued to rebound with gains ranging from 1.4 to 5.5% today

• DAX futures point to a slightly higher opening of today's European cash session

• Ukraine rejected yesterday's media reports that progress is being made in peace talks, saying that they were only presenting Russian position

• Toyota and Nissan suspended production at some factories in Japan following yesterday's 7.3 magnitude earthquake

• Australian employment jumped 77.4k in February (exp. 37.5k) while the unemployment rate dropped from 4.2 to 4.0% (exp. 4.1%)

• Japanese core machinery orders dropped 2.0% MoM in January (exp. -2.1% MoM)

• Oil trades higher today with both WTI and Brent gaining over 1%. Brent is approaching $100 per barrel while WTI trades at $95 per barrel

• Precious metals trade higher with palladium jumping 1%. Platinum is an exception as it drops 0.2%

• AUD and GBP are the best performing major currencies while USD and JPY are top laggards

Brent (OIL) is trying to recover from a recent drop. Price bounced off a $97.00 support zone and is now testing key short-term resistance in the $100 area, marked with the downward trendline and 50-hour moving average (green line). Source: xStation5