Wall Street is on its way to break a streak of four days of gains; Western Alliance drops 11%

Current reporting from the world’s leading markets: the important updates, prominent stocks, bonds and analyst updates

21:50 – The price of WTI oil weakened today (Wed) by 0.21% on the New York Mercantile Exchange and the price of a barrel for delivery in June was set at $80.54.

21:20 – Gold futures closed lower today, after soaring to a one-year high yesterday, amid weaker-than-expected economic data in the US that fueled expectations of a recession, which increased the precious metal’s appeal, according to analysts. The price of gold for June delivery fell today by 0.1% and the price of an ounce was set at $2,035.60.

21:05 – Western Alliance Bank’s stock is slowly recovering, but still down, about 11%, after the bank issued a new update on its deposit status. The bank announced that its deposit balance increased by approximately $900 million from March 30 to the end of the quarter. Earlier, the bank’s stock crashed by about 20%, after investors were initially disappointed by the lack of detail in the update published last night.

Western Alliance said deposits shrank by $6 billion in the first quarter. Investors were now comforted by the update, according to which deposits increased by $1.2 billion this month. The bank also stated that its total insured deposits now stand at 68% of total deposits, significantly higher than at the end of the year, when they accounted for 50% of total deposits. The bank’s stock has fallen by more than 50% since the beginning of the year and by 66% from its peak.

20:40 – Trading on the New York Stock Exchanges follows a mixed trend – the Dow Jones index climbs by 0.2%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indices fall by 0.4% and 1.3%, respectively. Western Alliance’s share falls by 13%, J’s share Vanson & Johnson climbs 3.9% Gold falls slightly to trade near $2,040 an ounce.

19:10 – Western Alliance’s stock is currently down 16% in New York trading. In the background, the Phoenix-based bank reported that its insured deposits made up about 68% of its total deposits as of March 31. This is a higher rate than the 55% that the bank revealed as of March 16, according to Bloomberg. According to the Wall Street Journal, the bank did not provide the total amount of deposits in dollars, and it is not clear whether they have increased or decreased in recent weeks.

Many small and medium-sized banks lost customer deposits one after another The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which catered to business customers with large deposits that exceeded the FDIC’s $250,000 insurance limit. On March 16, Western Alliance reported that insured deposits accounted for approximately 55% of total deposits – an increase from 45% at the end of 2022. In an update on March 10, the bank reported that total deposits increased by $7.8 billion since the end of the year to $61.5 billion dollar as of March 9. The bank announced that it will publish the results of the first quarter on April 18.

18:55 – Most of the leading stock exchanges in Europe closed lower today for the third day in a row, with uncertainty regarding the global economic outlook. The British FTSE index rose by 0.4%. The DAX and KAC indices fell by 0.5% and 0.4% respectively. Telecom stocks rose 1.8%, healthcare stocks rose 1.7%. In contrast, construction and materials stocks fell 2.6% and technology sector stocks fell 1.8%. Bank shares fell 0.7% as investors digested UBS’s first shareholder meeting since its controversial takeover of Credit Suisse.

17:40 – Trading in New York is still in a mixed trend – the Dow Jones index rises by 0.2%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq weaken by 0.4% and 1.1% respectively. Gold is currently down by 0.5% and is trading below $2,030 per ounce, after trading earlier already above 2,040 dollars per ounce at a high of more than a year.

17:20 – The US services sector slowed more than expected in March. According to the Reuters report, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said on Wednesday that its non-manufacturing PMI fell to 51.2 last month, from 55.1 in February. A reading above 50 indicates growth in the service industry, which makes up more than two-thirds of the economy. Economists polled by Reuters had predicted the index would fall to 54.5. The Purchasing Managers’ Index remains above the level of 49.9, which, according to ISM, over time indicates growth in the economy. However, the lower-than-expected reading, which followed the continued weakness in manufacturing activity last month, increases the risk of a recession this year.

16:35 – Trading on the New York Stock Exchange opened with a mixed trend. The Dow Jones rises by 0.1%, the S&P 500 index weakens by 0.2% and the Nasdaq loses 0.5%. In the background, the ADP report published today according to which the increase in wage earners in the private sector stood at Only 145 thousand people in March – compared to forecasts for an addition of 210 thousand workers and an increase of 261 thousand workers in the private sector in February.

13:40 – Wall Street stock index contracts register slight decreases of up to 0.2%, with the Dow Jones and S&P 500 indices on their way to break a streak of 4 days of gains.

Gold is above the price of $2,040 per ounce and at a high for more than a year (since March 2022). In the background, among other things, the dollar weakened to a two-month low against the basket of leading currencies. Investors are also turning to the precious metals (the silver metal above $25 per ounce), due to the fear of an approaching recession along with ongoing inflation. Senior officials at the US central bank support the continuation of interest rate hikes designed to cool the high prices.

Johnson & Johnson shares rose 3% in pre-market trading. The pharma giant You will pay $8.9 billion over the next 25 years To settle tens of thousands of claims that its baby talcum powder, and other talc products, cause cancer. However, according to the company, the claims against the products are not scientifically based. Johnson & Johnson trades at a market capitalization of nearly half a trillion dollars.

13:20 – Ofcom, the regulator responsible for the UK communications market, announced today Because he intends to ask the Antitrust Authority in the Kingdom to investigate the cloud infrastructure market – a market dominated by Amazon and Microsoft. According to an announcement published today (Wednesday) by the regulators, the interim results of a study they conducted starting in October revealed conduct that may limit competition in the market and make it difficult for customers to switch and use several cloud computing providers.

11:30 – Trading in European stock exchanges is in a mixed trend. Putsy in London rises by 0.2%, Dax in Frankfurt and Kac in Paris lose 0.3%.

10:00 – Samsung is expected to report a 92% drop in profit in the first quarter, which will fall to its lowest level in the last 14 quarters, due to a slowdown in chip purchases by data center operators and computer manufacturers in view of the slowdown in the global economy. According to analysts’ estimates.

According to reports, the launch of a new smartphone model likely helped boost profits in the mobile division, but the chip division is expected to report a loss of more than 3 trillion won ($2.3 billion) in the quarter, due to the drop in memory chip prices that hurt inventory value.

Samsung, the world’s largest manufacturer of memory chips, televisions and smartphones, as of 2022, is considered a marker of global consumption trends. The company will publish on Friday the preliminary results for the first quarter of the year, with the full results to be published later this month. The first quarter is often considered a weaker period.

The president of the Federal Reserve in Cleveland, Loretta Master, said that the central bank will be forced to continue to raise interest rates, in order to suppress inflation. According to her, “The answer to the question of how much more we will have to raise the interest rate, and how long we will have to do it, depends on how strongly inflation and inflation expectations will decrease. It also depends on the extent of the slowdown in demand and the solution to the problems in the supply chains.” about two weeks ago The Fed raised interest rates by 0.25% to a range of 4.75%-5%. Most of the bank’s executives expect only one more interest rate increase in 2023.

The words of Master – who does not have the right to vote on the Fed’s Open Market Committee – were said against the background of data published yesterday according to which the number of new applications for unemployment benefits fell below 10 million in February, for the first time in two years – evidence that interest rate increases may have begun to cool the tight labor market.

The Nikkei index in Tokyo loses 1.7%, Kospi in South Korea rises by 0.7%. The stock exchanges in China and Hong Kong are closed for a holiday.

The Central Bank of New Zealand unexpectedly raised the interest rate by 50 basis points, to 5.25% – the analysts expected an increase of 25 basis points. The interest rate in the country is now at its highest level since October 2008. According to the bank, “inflation in the country is too high”. In February, the interest rate was raised by 50 basis points, to 4.75%.