EQUITIES
On Thursday, major benchmark closes as follow:
S&P 500 Index : $2,630.07, gain 154.51 points or 6.24%
Dow Jones Industrial Average : $22,552.17, gain 1,351.62 points or 6.38%
Nasdaq Composite Index : $7,797.54, gain 413.24 points or 5.60%
European exchanges also performing, with London's FTSE 100 up 2.24%, Germany's DAX 1.28% and France's CAC 40 gain 2.51%. Italy's closed 0.73% higher and pan-European Stoxx 600 index gain 2.55%.
In Asian markets, China’s index is in red as other stocks in the region are performing in green. Hong Kong's Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite shed -0.74% and -0.60% in early trade. Meanwhile, SENSEX surged 4.94%, Singapore’s gain 2.62%, Japan's Nikkei 225 surged 1.47%.
OIL
Brent crude futures ended the session lower on Thursday at $26.34 per barrel or -3.83% while WTI crude futures for May delivery down -7.72%, to $22.60 per barrel.
Currently, Brent crude is trading at $26.77 per barrel while U.S. benchmark WTI crude trading at $23.11 per barrel, as of writing time (UTC+08.00).
CURRENCIES
The DXY is down on Thursday and it dropped back below 100.00, to 99.28, the lowest in a week.
Meanwhile, the dollar traded mixed against other major currencies. Dollar rose against MXN (1.32%), RUB (0.19%), GBP (0.16%), CAD (0.19%), CNY (0.10%) and NOK (0.03%).
U.S. dollar also drops against some other currencies, including JPY (-0.86%), NZD (-0.33%), AUD (-0.35%), SEK (-0.18%), EUR (-0.01%) and SGD (-0.06%) at the latest reading.
GOLD
Gold currently trading at $1,624.50 per ounce, while stands around $1,638.80 per ounce for gold futures of writing time.
Silver trading at $14.56, platinum trading at $734.00 and palladium trading at $2,253.00.
ECONOMIC OUTLOOK
JPMorgan slashes U.S. GDP forecast for next quarter, now sees a 25% contraction and an imminent recession, citing recent developments in the coronavirus outbreak and containment measures’ economic costs. The bank dragged its first-quarter growth estimate to -10% from -4% and dropped its second-quarter estimate to -25% from -14%.
The coronavirus pandemic will inflict a deep recession on the world economy, and many major national economies, during the first half of 2020. To date, number of confirmed worldwide cases for COVID-19 pandemic has now reached more than 532,000 today affecting 199 countries and territories around the world, with U.S. overtaking China as most total cases reported standing more than 85,000, including 1,295 fatality. The death toll from the novel coronavirus has now topped 24,000 global.
TECHNICAL OUTLOOK
[NZDUSD]
NZDUSD after reaching the level of 0.59 began to rise to the resistance line at the resistance level of 0.60168. BUY from the support line.
But also depend on the success of the country in controlling the rate of positive COVID-19 patients, lockdown procedures and economic stimulus.
