EQUITIES
Asia-Pacific markets mostly lower on Thursday, except for mainland Chinese stocks, the Shanghai composite that was at 0.39% higher and the India’s S&P BSE Sensex index that marginally added 0.07%.
The Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index led the losses at -1.16% lower followed by the South Korea’s KOSPI at -1.01%. While in Japan, the Nikkei 225 was down -0.25%, while the Singapore’s Straits Times index shed -0.42%, and the Australis’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped -0.04%.
Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 90.27 points higher at 31,613.02. The S&P 500 declined fractionally to finish its trading day at 3,931.33 while the Nasdaq Composite closed 0.58% lower at about 13,965.50.
OIL
Oil extended a rise as the deep freeze causing historic power outages across the central U.S. has led crude output in the country to plunge by a third.
The Brent crude futures traded to $65.10 a barrel, while U.S. crude at $61.76 on Thursday.
Overnight, the Brent close at $64.34, while WTI futures ended at $61.14 per barrel.
CURRENCIES
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 90.95 following a recent rise from levels below 90.3.
U.S. Treasury yields retreated from a 1-year high.
The Australian dollar was at $0.7752 after seeing levels around $0.78 earlier in the trading week. The kiwi edged lower to $0.7186.
The offshore yuan was at 6.4372 per dollar. Onshore trading of the Chinese yuan resumes Thursday following Lunar New Year holidays.
Bitcoin to the moon. Jumped past $52,000 for the first time. Ethereum also rose more than 2% to new record high of $1,900.
GOLD
Gold prices inched up on Thursday to recover from a more than 2-month low hit in the previous session, trading at $1,782.20 per ounce, while rose around $1,782.40 per ounce for gold futures. Previously closed at $1,775.90 and $1,772.80, respectively.
Silver trading at $27.25, platinum trading at $1,266.00 and palladium trading at $2,274.00.
ECONOMIC OUTLOOK
Asian stocks mixed as investors weighed strong U.S. retail sales and recent positive vaccine developments against concerns about inflation that added some pressure on stocks. Investors watched movements in mainland Chinese stocks as they returned from the Lunar New Year holiday.
U.S. retail sales rebounded sharply, increasing 5.3% in January and manufacturing activity rose, while PPI increased by the most since 2009, suggesting inflation was starting to creep up.
Federal Reserve reiterated their stance on maintaining interests rates low indefinitely, while debated how to lay the groundwork for the public to accept higher inflation, minutes of the U.S. central bank's Jan. 26 to 27 policy meeting showed.
API - U.S. crude oil stocks fell by 5.8 million barrels in the week to Feb. 12 to about 468 million barrels, compared with analysts’ expectations for a draw of 2.4 million.
To date, number of confirmed worldwide cases for COVID-19 pandemic has surpassed 109.887 million affecting 213 countries and territories around the world and 2 international conveyances, recording more than 2.429 million fatality globally.
TECHNICAL OUTLOOK
[USDJPY]
Important Levels to Watch for Today:
- Resistance line of 106.491 and 106.902.
- Support line of 105.163 and 104.752.
Commentary/ Reason:
The pair little changed on mid-morning of the Asian trading hour.
The dollar was almost flat at 105.886 yen, following a pullback overnight after reached a 5-month high of 106.217.
The Japanese yen regain ground on stronger-than-expected country’s economic data. Japan Dec core machine orders unexpectedly rose stronger than expectations, while exports showed the largest increase in 2 years. Higher Japanese government bond yields are also a bullish factor for the yen after the 10-year Japan JGB bond yield rose to a 10-3/4-month high Wednesday of 0.102%.
Japan’s central bank governor said on Thursday he told the country’s prime minister the bank would conduct a review of its policy tools in March to ensure it can maintain ultra-loose monetary settings for a long period.
While the Feds reiterated their stance on maintaining interests rates low indefinitely. The Fed has pledged to pin interest rates near zero until inflation rises to 2% and looks set to exceed that goal, minutes from FOMC meeting showed.
