Morning wrap (28.12.2023)

• Wall Street indices finished yesterday's trading slightly higher. S&P 500 gained 0.14%, Dow Jones moved 0.30% higher, while Nasdaq added 0.16%. Small-cap Russell 2000 gained around 0.3%
• Indices from Asia-Pacific traded mostly higher today - S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.7%, Kospi jumped 1.6%, and Nifty 50 moved 0.4% higher. Nikkei was a laggard amid JPY strengthening, and dropped 0.4%
• Indices from China traded 1.3-2.8% higher
• DAX futures point to a higher opening of the European cash session today
• CHF and JPY are the best performing major currencies, while USD and AUD lag the most
• Major cryptocurrencies trade mixed - Bitcoin drops 0.5%, Ethereum gains 0.7%, Dogecoin adds 1% and Polygon declines 1.5%
• Oil gains around 0.5% while US natural gas prices trade flat
• Precious metals benefit from USD weakness - gold and silver gain 0.4%, platinum jumps 1.2% and palladium adds 0.5%
• Bank of Japan Governor Ueda said that chance of BoJ exiting negative interest rates in 2024 is non-zero. However, he said he is in no hurry to unwind ultra-loose monetary policy
• Chinese National Development and Reform Commission said it will strive to expand domestic demand and promote stable growth
• Japanese industrial production declined 0.9% MoM in November (exp. -1.5% MoM). On an annual basis, production was 1.4% YoY lower
• Japanese retail sales increased 5.3% YoY in November (exp. 5.0% YoY)
• API report pointed to a 1.84 million barrel build in US oil inventories yesterday (exp. -2.5 mb)

USDJPY deepens ongoing slide and is looking towards a test of local low from December 14, 2023 in the 141.00 area. Source: xStation5