By IFCMarkets
US stocks edged lower on Thursday due to the weak performance of the banking sector. Janet Yellen said on Thursday the US economy is performing well with further interest rate hikes still on course this year. US dollar index, a measure of a greenback’s value against a basket of six major currencies, gained around 0.1% on Thursday to 94.60 to end the week little changed. S&P 500 indexedged 1.2% lower to 2,041.91 with interest-rate financials loosing 1.9% on the renewed global growth concerns. It was the biggest index’s daily drop in recent six weeks. On Wednesday the Fed March meeting minutes were released showing the Fed has limited ability to counter the global economic slowdown which lowers the chances for the interest rate hikes this year. Dow Jones industrial average slid down 0.98% to 17,541.96 while Nasdaq fell 1.47% to 4,848.37. The trading volume was 7.2bn shares, slightly above the last 20 trading days average of 7.1bn shares. Today at 14:30 US Fed William Dudley speaks on the economy. At 16:30 CET the wholesale inventories for February will be released while at 19:00 CET the US oil rig count is expected, the current number of US oil rigs is 362.
European stocks opened higher on Friday with British FTSE 100 adding 0.4%. German Dax 30 index rising 0.7% and French CAC 40 advancing 0.1%. EURUSD live chart shows the pair is traded at $1.1363, set for a weekly gain of 0.2%. Today in the morning several economic indicators were released in Great Britain: the February manufacturing and industrial production, goods trade balance, total trade balance all coming out negative. On the contrary, in Germany the trade balance, current account and imports came out better than expected for February.
Asian stocks were in the red on Friday having dipped to 3-week lows but reversed on Japanese finance minister announcement the officials will prevent any strong moves in the yen. Speaking of Japan, the Nikkei index advanced 1.2% poised to end this week 1.4% lower. USDJPY rate fell to 107.67 on Thursday, its trough since October 2014, but later rebounded 0.4% to 108.67 yen on Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso words that rapid foreign exchange moves were undesirable and that Japan would take steps as needed. Nevertheless, the pair is to end the week 2.7% lower. The next Bank of Japan’s meeting is scheduled on April 27-28. The ING strategists believe the yen-setting interventions on Forex are unlikely ahead of G-7 summit which Japan hosts in May. In China the Shanghai Composite slipped 0.7% while CSI fell 0.6%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.4% and is to end this week 1.5 lower.
Oil futures prices were settled lower on Thursday on data showing the risen weekly inventories but are advancing on Friday on strong economic data from U.S. and Germany which highlighted the heightened demand for fuel. May Brent crude futures rose 1.7% to $40.10 a barrel with 1.7% weekly gain while the US crude gained 2.2% to $38.08 a barrel with 3.5% weekly gain.
Gold rose 1.5% on Thursday to $1,240.21 an ounce having hit a two-week high of $ 1,243.50 an ounce in intraday trading.
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Copper is traded at $4,672 per tonne today having slumped 2.8% on Thursday – the most in recent 6 months – to touch the 6-week low of $4,631 per tonne.
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