- Wall Street indices finished yesterday's trading higher, with all major US benchmarks booking gains. S&P 500 gained 0.51%, Dow Jones moved 0.85% higher and Nasdaq added 0.27%. Small-cap Russell 2000 jumped 0.80%
- S&P 500 finished yesterday's trading above 5,200 pts mark, reaching a 1-month high
- Indices from Asia-Pacific traded higher today - Nikkei gained 0.3%, S&P/ASX 200 and Nifty 50 moved 0.5% higher and Kospi jumped 0.7%
- Hang Seng rallied over 2% and climbed to the highest level in 9 months
- Move higher in Hong Kong was driven by authorities hinting they consider a plan to exclude private investors from paying taxes on income from Hong Kong equities purchased via Stock Connect, a system connecting Hong Kong and mainland China exchanges
- European index futures point to a higher opening of the cash session on the Old Continent today
- Bloomberg reports that United States may announce tariffs on Chinese EV sector as soon as next week. New tariffs will target electric vehicles, batteries and solar equipment among others
- Chinese CCTV reported that it is unlikely for a country-wide removal of restrictions on home purchases, after two Chinese provinces lifted all restrictions and decided not to vet eligibility of potential home buyers
- US Treasury Secretary Yellen said that while inflation has fallen substantially, it has not fallen enough to justify rate cuts yet
- Former Bank of Japan executive Maeda said that BoJ communications clearly hints at more rate hikes at that the next one may be delivered between July and October
- Australian manufacturing PMI index improved from 47.1 to 48.9 in April. Nevertheless, data still hints at recession in Australian manufacturing sector
- Japanese household spending declined 1.2% YoY in March (exp. -2.4% YoY)
- Major cryptocurrencies are trading mixed today - Bitcoin gains 0.3%, Ethereum and Dogecoin trade flat, while Ripple drops 0.3%
- Energy commodities are trading higher - oil gains 0.3%, while US natural gas price jump over 1%
- Precious metals trade higher in spite of USD strengthening - gold and silver gain 0.4%, platinum adds 0.2% and palladium trades 0.6% higher
- USD and GBP are the best performing major currencies, while AUD and NZD lag the most
US indices resumed upward move yesterday, after a brief pause on Wednesday. S&P 500 (US500) climbed to the highest level in a month. Source: xStation5
