BoJ Rate Decision, Oracle and DocuSign Earnings

After the steep market move on Tuesday, the EUR/USD pair was close to unchanged on Wednesday, trading again around the 1.055-level. The performance of the euro against other currencies over the past few days was somewhat mixed. While the Japanese yen (JPY) also appreciated on the dollar-strength, other currencies like the Australian dollar (AUD) and the New Zealand dollar (NZD) were trading only marginally stronger compared to the euro, while the EUR/CAD rate even reached a new one month high.

The release of the eurozone GDP figures for the fourth quarter of last year by Wednesday morning might have added concerns about the overall direction of the economy. On a quarterly basis the growth rate was practically flat, even though at least a small growth has been expected. On a year-on-year basis meanwhile the growth rate slowed down from 2.3% in the previous reading to just 1.8%.

After the steep market move on Tuesday, in precious metal markets also were close to unchanged on Wednesday with gold closing only marginally higher after briefly trading below the $1,810-level. Silver prices meanwhile were at the end of the day marginally lower though recovered from the intraday low below the $20-mark.

Palladium prices meanwhile continued declining and reached a new low since 2019. In this price move potentially the weaker expectations for economic growth might have also played a role besides the strength of the dollar and relatively high rates. Platinum prices also turned once again lower despite Reuters reporting that the World Platinum Investment Council expecting a deficit in this precious metal during this and following years given stronger industrial demand.

Oil prices continued declining with a barrel of WTI crude oil trade below the $77-level. Though prices briefly rebounded around the time the Energy Information Administration (EIA) published its weekly petroleum status report, no turnaround from the trend to downside could be observed following the release. EIA data showed a decrease of crude oil inventories amounting to 1.7 million barrels, while gasoline inventories were also down by 1.1 million barrels.

Concerns about persistent inflation and hawkish central bank policies, which could lead to a recession might have been a factor affecting also this market. The steep inversion of the yield curve in U.S. Treasuries as the spread between the 2 year and 10 year note exceeded 100 basis points could be a signal pointing to an increased risk of a recession.

By the end of the day the US 500 index was almost unchanged compared to the previous session, while tech indices like the US Tech 100 and the FANG+ index ended the day with a clear upside especially given the strong performance of semiconductor stocks. In particular Nvidia (+3.81%) was performing very strongly, trading close to the highs reached on Monday. AMD (+3.96%) was also among the top performers of the day after the stock price moved up to a new three weeks high, not being subject to a downside move during the overall bearish session on Tuesday.

Stocks of cruise line companies like Carnival (-3.04 %) and Norwegian Cruise Line (-4.42%) continued to face pressure with the stock prices once again declined despite the overall cautiously positive market sentiment on Wednesday.

For Thursday quarterly results from JD.com, Oracle and DocuSign can be expected.