- Indices from Asia-Pacific traded higher at the beginning of a new week - Nikkei rallied 2.5%, S&P/ASX 200 added 0.1%, Kospi moved 0.7% higher and Nifty 50 traded flat. Indices from China gained 0.3-1.1%
- European index futures point to a higher opening of the cash session on the Old Continent today
- US index futures also trade higher, with S&P 500 futures trying to climb back above 5,200 pts
- ECB de Cos said that European Central Bank may start cutting interest rates in June
- Market consensus now is for Bank of Japan to exit negative rates at a meeting tomorrow, after last week's wages talks resulted in the biggest pay hikes in decades
- Nomura and MUFJ also expects Bank of Japan to end yield curve control tomorrow
- According to JPMorgan, Bitcoin allocation to investors' portfolio, adjusted for volatility, has now surpassed gold
- Chinese retail sales were 5.5% YoY higher in February (exp. 5.2% YoY), industrial production was up 7.0% YoY (exp. 5.0% YoY) and urban investments were 4.2% YoY higher (exp. 3.2% YoY)
- Chinese unemployment rate increased from 5.1 to 5.3% in January (exp. 5.1% YoY)
- Japanese machinery orders dropped 1.7% MoM in January (exp. -1.0% MoM)
- South Korea's semiconductor exports were 62.9% YoY higher in February, with exports of memory chips being 108.1% YoY higher
- Major cryptocurrencies are trading mixed at the beginning of a new week - Bitcoin gains 0.2%, Ethereum drops 0.6%, Ripple adds 0.6% and Dogecoin drops 2.0%
- Energy commodities trade higher - oil gains 0.4-0.5%, while US natural gas prices climb over 2%
- Precious metals pull back - gold and silver drop 0.4%, platinum drops 1% and palladium is down 0.8%
- NZD and CAD are the best performing major currencies, while JPY and CHF lag the most
Nikkei (JP225) surged 2% today, supported by weaker yen. Index broke above the upper limit of market geometry in 38,900 pts area and rallied to the highest level since March 8, 2024. Source: xStation5
