Trade overview: current reports, trends, indices, stock prices, bonds, foreign exchange and commodities and analyst recommendations
08:00
Asian stock markets are trading today in a mixed trend, with the Nikkei index falling by about 0.8% and the Hang Seng index rising by about 2.6%.
In Tokyo, Softbank’s stock falls by more than 10% after its Vision Fund reported a loss of approximately $9.9 billion in the last quarter.
In the crypto arena, Bitcoin drops below $16,000 and trades around $15,840, and Ethereum drops to $1,180.
Slight declines are recorded in futures trading on US stock market indices.
After a sharp drop in its rate in the last trading days, the dollar is strengthening today. The euro weakened by about 0.5% and traded around $1.03 per euro, the pound weakened by about 0.7% to $1.175 per pound and the Chinese yuan strengthened by about 0.6% and traded around 7.06 yuan per dollar.
● The dollar’s worst week: the rally is over or is it a slight correction? The experts are analyzing
In the commodity trading arena, oil contracts are trading stable and gold is registering a slight decline.
Ronan Menachem, Chief Markets Economist at Mizrachi Tefahot, states in the review he published that “The Fed has to constantly remind the markets that despite the fall in inflation – which was sharper than expected in the last month – it is still far from the target and therefore as part of its commitment it must rise. After raising the interest rate from a quarter of a percent to 4 percent within a few months, the market got used to “living from one interest rate announcement to the next” and focusing on the amount of the increase each time. It is more difficult to understand that if the final stop of the round of hikes is also moving away, the sharp interest rate hikes can continue. Therefore, says the Fed, one should not get excited about a single month’s inflation figure, however positive it may be.”
But, writes Menachem, “that the Fed is not sending clear enough messages and it is not certain that inside the house the opinions are uniform there. Yesterday one of the members of the Fed, Christopher Walter, said that he asked the market to be too optimistic due to the October inflation report, even though all the indices went down a notch. He explained because there is still a long way to go when it comes to interest rate hikes. Walter admitted that the rate of hikes may indeed decrease in the coming months, but emphasized that the market should focus on the final stop, which is probably still far away, and not on the rate of each individual hike. It is not certain that the Fed’s opinion is favorable every time the market “Raises his head”, because he fears that if the next interest rate hikes are still sharp, it will cause the market to fall sharply.
But it turns out that the messages of the Fed itself, which seeks to “calm” the enthusiasm, may themselves cause no less sharp fluctuations. Therefore, it is likely that the Fed will soon ask to give the market a more decisive statement. During the interest rate announcement next month (which will probably increase by 50 bp), the Fed will update its growth, inflation and interest rate forecasts. I would not be surprised if in the announcement and, moreover, in Chairman Powell’s speech, there will be a clearer statement about the end of the process – also regarding the interest rate the final and also regarding the timing of its determination”.