Concerns over Credit Suisse added to the fallout from the collapse of SVB, Signature Bank and Silvergate. And though there have been problems at the big Swiss bank for years, fears of a global contagion exacerbated investor jitters. The Bank was down -30% at one point – closed -14%. The Swiss authorities will offer a loan of $54bn to try to prevent collapse and the stock is +35% pre-market. A risk off mood has raced around the World and holds for now.
USD, CHF, JPY & Gold had safe haven bids and the short end of the yield curve collapsed with the 2-yr falling the fastest in decades. Stock markets recovered from 2023 lows into close after heavy losses on open (NASDAQ +0.05%). Asian markets lower (-0.80% to -2.12%), US PPI & Retail Sales both undershot expectations, and the UK Budget focused on pensions and childcare as millions of workers continued to strike. Overnight: Japanese Machine Orders and the Trade Balance were both much better than expected and in Australia Unemployment dropped to 3.5% as jobs soared to 65K from a decline of 11k last month. NZD GDP missed at -0.6% q/q vs. -0.2% and 2.2% y/y vs. 3.3%.
FX – USDIndex rallied over 150 pts to 104.70 yesterday and has eased to 104.20 now. EUR tanked from over 1.0750 to under 1.0520 before recovering 1.0600 today. JPY holds over 133.00 now but ranged from 135.00 to 132.40 yesterday. Sterling tanked from 1.2150 to test the key 1.2000 yesterday and trades at 1.2070 now.
Stocks – The US markets opened 1-2% lower but recovered into close (-0.87% to +0.05%) Movers: SCHW +5.06%, XOM -4.97%, CVX -4.33%. US500 -0.70% (-27.36) to 3892, US500 FUTS +0.95% higher at 3930 now.
Commodities – USOil – Futures collapsed some -6% again yesterday, following a -4% fall on Tuesday to touch $65.70 lows last touched December 2021. It has since recovered to $67.80. Gold – holds the key psychological $1900 level, at $1920 down from yesterday’s 6-week $1935 high.
Cryptocurrencies – BTC dipped to $24k from $25K yesterday and trades at $24.5k now.
Today – US Building Permits/Housing Starts, Export/Import Prices, Weekly Claims, ECB Policy Announcement & Press Conference.
Biggest FX Mover @ (07:30 GMT) AUDUSD (+0.60%). Continued the rally today from yesterday’s low under 0.6600 back to test 0.6660 now. MA’s aligned higher, MACD histogram & signal line negative but rising, RSI 59.56 & rising, H1 ATR 0.00154, Daily ATR 0.00782.
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Stuart Cowell
Head Market Analyst
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