Market Talk – April 7, 2023

The NYSE will close on Monday, April 10, in honor of Easter Monday. Market Talk will resume on Tuesday, April 11. We wish all who celebrate a happy Easter holiday.

ASIA:

The major Asian stock markets had a green day today:

• NIKKEI 225 increased 45.68 points or 0.17% to 27,518.31
• Shanghai increased 15.02 points or 0.45% to 3,327.65
• Hang Seng closed
• ASX 200 closed
• Kospi increased 31.18 points or 1.27% to 2,490.41
• SENSEX closed
• Nifty50 closed

The major Asian currency markets had a mixed day today:

• AUDUSD decreased 0.00055 or -0.08% to 0.66655
• NZDUSD increased 0.00062 or 0.10% to 0.62382
• USDJPY increased 0.372 or 0.28% to 132.132
• USDCNY decreased 0.0052 or -0.08% to 6.87690

Precious Metals:

• Gold decreased 12.34 USD/t oz. or -0.61% to 2,008.02
• Silver increased 0.030 USD/t. oz or 0.12% to 25.005

Some economic news from last night:

Japan:

Household Spending (MoM) (Feb) decreased from 2.7% to -2.4%

Household Spending (YoY) (Feb) increased from -0.3% to 1.6%

Some economic news from today:

China:

FX Reserves (USD) (Mar) increased from 3.133T to 3.184T

Japan:

Coincident Indicator (MoM) (Feb) increased from -3.0% to 2.8%

Leading Index (MoM) (Feb) increased from -0.6% to 1.1%

Leading Index increased from 96.6 to 97.7

India:

Bank Loan Growth decreased from 15.7% to 15.0%

Deposit Growth decreased from 10.3% to 9.6%

FX Reserves, USD decreased from 578.78B to 578.45B

EUROPE/EMEA:

The major Europe stock markets closed today:

• CAC 40 closed
• FTSE 100 closed
• DAX 30 closed

The major Europe currency markets had a mixed day today:

• EURUSD decreased 0.00095 or -0.09% to 1.09105
• GBPUSD decreased 0.00215 or -0.17% to 1.24175
• USDCHF increased 0.00035 or 0.04% to 0.90505

Some economic news from Europe today:

France:

French Current Account (Feb) increased from -3.30B to -3.00B

French Exports (Feb) increased from 49.6B to 51.0B

French Imports (Feb) decreased from 62.1B to 60.9B

French Reserve Assets Total (Mar) increased from 209,146.0M to 217,784.0M

French Trade Balance (Feb) increased from -12.5B to -9.9B

US/AMERICAS:

Nonfarm payrolls in the US rose by 236,000 in March, indicated by the highly-reviewed Labor Department report released this Friday. February’s reading was revised upward to reflect 326,000 new positions. Payrolls rose 0.3% for the month, bringing the annual increase to 4.2%. The average work week fell to 34.4 hours. Leisure and hospitality saw the highest increase (72,000), followed by government (47,000), professional and business services (39,000), and health care (34,000). Retail shed 15,000 positions. Unemployment inched back down to 3.5%, and despite the dip in unemployment, the pace or hiring has begun to slow. March marks the lowest monthly posting since December 2020.

US Market Closings:

• Dow advanced 2.57 points or 0.01% to 33,485.29
• S&P 500 advanced 14.64 points or 0.36% to 4,105.02
• Nasdaq advanced 91.1 points or 0.76% to 12,087.96
• Russell 2000 advanced 2.33 points or 0.13% to 1,754.46

Canada Market Closings:

• TSX Composite advanced 37.14 points or 0.18% to 20,196.69
• TSX 60 advanced 2.06 points or 0.17% to 1,215.99

Brazil Market Closing:

• Bovespa declined 156.12 points or -0.15% to 100,821.73

ENERGY:

The oil markets had a mixed day today:

• Crude Oil increased 0.090 USD/BBL or 0.11% to 80.700
• Brent increased 0.130 USD/BBL or 0.15% to 85.120
• Natural gas decreased 0.1440 USD/MMBtu or -6.68% to 2.0110
• Gasoline decreased 0.0068 USD/GAL or -0.24% to 2.8133
• Heating oil decreased 0.0705 USD/GAL or -2.58% to 2.6605

The above data was collected around 12:41 EST on Friday

• Top commodity gainers: Steel (0.75%), Bitumen (1.51%)
• Top commodity losers: Palm Oil (-0.76%), Methanol (-1.51%)

The above data was collected around 12:48 EST Friday.

BONDS:

Japan 0.461% (-0.9bp), US 2’s 3.99% (+0.172%), US 10’s 3.4131% (+12.31bps); US 30’s 3.62% (+0.083%), Bunds 2.181% (+0.2bp), France 2.706% (-0.4bp), Italy 4.027% (-0.7bp), Turkey 11.27% (+0bp), Greece 4.08% (-1.4bp), Portugal 3.064% (+1bp); Spain 3.25% (+1.6bp) and UK Gilts 3.433% (+0.4bp).

The post Market Talk – April 7, 2023 first appeared on Armstrong Economics.