EQUITIES
S&P 500 Index : $2,799.55, gain 16.19 points or 0.58%
Dow Jones Industrial Average : $23,537.68, gain 33.33 points or 0.14%
Nasdaq Composite Index : $8,532.36, gain 139.19 points or -1.66%
Europe exchanges also recording gain as London's FTSE 100 up 0.55%, Germany's DAX up 0.21% with France's CAC 40 shedding -0.08%. Italy's closed 0.29% higher and pan-European Stoxx 600 index gain 0.58% closed Thursday.
Asian markets are constructive in early trade. Japan's Nikkei 225 up 1.94%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng recording loss of -0.58%, China's Shanghai Composite up 0.31%, Singapore’s gain 0.26%, South Korea’s KOSPI gain 2.25%, and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gain 1.93% in early trading.
OIL
Brent crude futures ended the session higher on Thursday at $27.82 per barrel, a rise of 0.47%, while WTI crude price remain unchanged at $19.87 per barrel.
Currently, Brent is trading at $28.79 per barrel and WTI is trading at $20.03 per barrel as of writing time (UTC+8).
CURRENCIES
The U.S. DXY previously closed 99.93 and stand at 99.76 latest, compared with a basket of its major peers.
Bleak economic news drive dollar inferior against some other major currencies in early trade, including against NOK (-1.02%), MXN (-0.79%), NZD (-0.65%), RUB (-0.51%), AUD (-0.47%), SGD (-0.40%), SEK (-0.30%), EUR (-0.28%), CAD (-0.28%), GBP (-0.27%), DKK (-0.23%), CHF (-0.22%), and JPY (-0.17%).
GOLD
Gold currently trading at $1,710.30 per ounce, while stands around $1,731.10 per ounce for gold futures as of writing time. Previously closed at 1,716.80 and 1,731.13, respectively.
Silver trading at $15.40, platinum trading at $782.00 and palladium trading at $2,115.00.
ECONOMIC OUTLOOK
Weekly jobless claims soared again, rising by 5.2 million since last week. The data showed a record total of 22 million Americans have sought unemployment benefits in the last month, erasing nearly all job gains since the Great Recession.
National Bureau of Statistics of China reported that its first quarter GDP contracted by 6.8% in 2020, their first decline since at least 1992.
Gilead stock pops 16% after report says coronavirus drug trial shows encouraging early results
Bank dividends could be at risk if America cannot return to work until summer. Banks ‘may need to say goodbye to their dividends’.
To date, number of confirmed worldwide cases for COVID-19 pandemic has now reached more than 2,183,000 today affecting 210 countries and territories around the world, recording more than 156,000 fatality globally.
TECHNICAL OUTLOOK
[AUDJPY]
-Short-
The pair is expected to not break the resistance line of 68.547.
