Morning wrap (18.05.2022)

• US indices finished yesterday's trading with large gains. S&P 500 jumped 2.02%, Dow Jones moved 1.34% higher and Nasdaq gained 2.76%. Small-cap Russell 2000 rallied 3.19%

• Stocks in Asia traded mixed. While Nikkei and S&P/ASX 200 traded 0.7% higher, Kospi gained just 0.1% and indices from China dropped

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

• Fed Chair Powell said that interest rates will be raised beyond neutral levels if the situation requires it. Powell said Fed stays committed to bringing inflation down

• Fed Evans said that he expects rates hikes to get smaller by July or September (25 basis points)

• European Commission will prepare a €210 billion plan for ending dependance on Russian fossil fuels by 2027

• More than 800 financial institution were allowed to resume operations in Shanghai in another sign of easing restrictions

• Japanese GDP contracted 0.2% QoQ in Q1 2022 (exp. -0.4% QoQ)

• API report pointed to a 2.44 million barrel drop in US oil inventories (exp. +1.5 mb)

• Cryptocurrencies are pulling back today - Bitcoin drops 1.8% and Ethereum trades 2.1% lower

• Oil trades 0.3% higher while precious metals drop slightly

• NZD and JPY are the best performing major currencies while EUR and CAD lag the most

Russell 2000 (US2000) outperformed other major Wall Street indices yesterday, gaining over 3%. Small-cap index continues recovery from a recent downside breakout from a trading range. The nearest resistance to watch is marked with the lower limit of an earlier-broken range at 1,930 pts. Source: xStation5