Equity markets
US markets were mixed last night, the S&P which recorded a fifth straight loss while the Dow Jones managed to hold on to a small gain. The biggest disconnect though was the tech heavy NASDAQ, slumping almost 2.5%. NASDAQ listed stocks such as Zoom, Amazon and Peloton, who have benefited greatly from COVID lockdown orders, dropped significantly as optimism in the battle against COVID saw investors rotating into more traditional cyclical stocks.
Source: Yahoo Finance
Federal Reserve
Chairman of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell is scheduled to testify before the Senate banking committee tonight on monetary policy.
It is expected that Powell is likely to deliver a dovish message in his first testimony since Democrats took control of the Senate and White House. We could see some volatility in equities and the US dollar as investors digest his words and any deviation from his previous statements.
FX markets
US dollar weakness continued with all major currencies performing well against the greenback with the stand out of the last few sessions being the Aussie dollar.
AUDUSD again rallied strongly, continuing the move on Friday when it broke the important resistance level of 78 US cents.
Persistently high commodity prices and rapid economic recovery in Australia and our biggest trading partner China have provided a strong tailwind for the Aussie.
Source: GO MT4
Spot gold (XAUUSD) bounced strongly off the support levels that were set in November 2020. Buyers jumping in at support paired with US dollar weakness pushed Gold higher, rallying around 1.8% on the session.
Source: GO MT4
Bitcoin
Bitcoin (BTCUSD) again showed how volatile it can be with some wild swings in price yesterday. The Crypto opening on Monday at an all time high of over 57K USD then proceeded to crash to a low of 47K USD after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that bitcoin is an “extremely inefficient” way to conduct monetary transactions. Only then to bounce back to 54K USD as dip buyers swooped in.
Source: GO MT4
Wednesday, 24 February 2021 Indicative Index Dividends Dividends are in Points |
||||||
ASX200 | WS30 | US500 | US2000 | NDX100 | CAC40 | STOXX50 |
3.391 | 0 | 0.048 | 0.058 | 0.275 | 0 | 0 |
ESP35 | ITA40 | FTSE100 | DAX30 | HK50 | JP225 | INDIA50 |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.217 |
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Equity markets US markets rallied broadly last night with the Dow again hitting an all time high as investors were cheered by Fed chair Jerome Powell’s testimony to the House Financial Services Committee in Washington overnight. Powell testified the Fed would continue its QE program of asset purchases until they see substantial progress towards...
Equity markets US markets dipped last night with the Dow finishing down for the first time in 4 sessions. This came as the streak of better-than-ex...