Trade overview: current reports, trends, indices, stock prices, bonds, foreign exchange and commodities and analyst recommendations
07:55
In Asia the trend is very positive this morning. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index jumps 3.6% when today the requirement to wear masks in public places was officially stopped, after 945 days. In China there are increases of more than +1%, in Tokyo the Nikkei rises by 0.2% and also in Taipei in Taiwan the trend is similar.
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The increases in Hong Kong are led by the technology companies, including Baidu which jumps by more than 6%, Tencent with an increase of 5.7%, Alibaba which jumps by 5% as well as the electric car manufacturers BYD and Geely, Xiaomi, J.D.Com, Lenovo and Meituan. The real estate companies Longfor and Country Garden, as well as the oil companies China Petroleum and PetroChina, also stand out in their gains.
Growth figures were published tonight in Australia according to which the GDP in the fourth quarter increased by only 0.5% when the forecasts were for an increase of 0.8%. The annual growth rate is 2.7% in line with the forecasts. The consumer price index in Australia was also published which indicated an annual inflation rate of 7.4%, below forecasts who expected it to reach 8.1% and compared to the figure of 8.4% in the previous measurement.
In China, it was announced that the Purchasing Managers’ Index in the manufacturing sector jumped to 52.6 points in February, compared to a reading of 50.1 points in January and above the forecast of 50.5 points. This is the highest level of the index since April 2012. In Japan, on the other hand, another contraction was recorded, for the fourth month in a row, in industrial production: the Purchasing Managers’ Index in the manufacturing sector fell in February to 47.7 points, compared to 48.9 points in January.
Later, preliminary inflation data for February in Germany and purchasing managers’ indices for February in Spain, Italy and the USA will be published.
Wall Street contracts are stable at this time. measure S&P500 Last night it fell by 0.3% and completed February’s decline of about 2.5%, but it is still in a positive return from the beginning of 2023. Nasdaq ended the evening with a slight decline of 0.1% and during February fell by 1%. Dow Jones fell by 0.7 % registered the sharpest drop among the indices in the past month (-4%).
Today Israel’s Parent Security is expected to begin trading on Nasdaq, after the company announced yesterday the completion of a merger with the American SPAC company Mount Rainier.
In the US government bond market, moderate increases in yields are recorded at this time. The 10-year bond yield rises by 2 points to 3.93% and the two-year bond yield climbs by 3 points to 4.82%.
In the commodity market, slight increases of up to 0.5% are recorded in crude oil contracts. American oil rises to $77.3 per barrel and Brent oil to $83.8 per barrel. Gold rises by 0.3% to the level of 1,832 dollars per ounce.
In foreign exchange, the representative dollar rate fell yesterday by 0.1% to NIS 3.66, the pound sterling rate jumped by 0.8% to NIS 4.43 and the euro rate added 0.3% to its value and ended at 3.89%. This morning the shekel is strengthening: the dollar is down by 0.4% relative to the above rate, to a level of NIS 3.65, the euro is down by 0.6% (to NIS 3.86) and the pound is down by 0.8% (to NIS 4.39).
In the crypto arena the trend is positive. Bitcoin rises by 1.5% to $23.7 thousand and Ethereum climbs by 1.7% to $1,655.
tomorrow (thursday) Inflation data will be published in the Eurozone, where the consumer price index is expected to drop to an annual rate of 8.2% compared to 8.6% in January. On Friday, the consumer price index in Turkey will be published, with inflation expected to drop from approximately 57.7% to 55.5% in February.