The Australian Dollar traded lower against its US counterpart on the NYSE, in view of the minutes from the FOMC meeting last month. The Aussie dropped 0.86%, trading at $0.7261 by the start of the North American trading hours on Wednesday and erasing all its gains from yesterday, when it traded above the $0.7300 level.
The largest US stock markets traded lower by 13:25 GMT on Wednesday due to lower oil prices. Thus, the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index dropped 0.4%, trading at 17,428.00, whereas the Standard and Poor's 500 Index declined 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.2%, trading at 2,037.00 and 4,309.25 points respectively.
Ahead of the EIA's weekly crude oil report, oil futures traded lower on Wednesday. WTI lost around 0.04%, trading at $48.23, whereas Brent dropped 0.43%, trading at $49.03 by 13:10 GMT on the New York Stock Exchange. In the meantime, gold declined 0.3% to $1,272.50 per ounce by the same time on the NYSE.
While the number of working people rose at a record pace, adding 44 000 to previous quarter's level, the jobless rate showed no change at 5.1%, indicating no contractionary labour market pressure stemming from the Brexit referendum. At the meantime, earnings growth with bonus payments added 2.0% during the first quarter, topping 1.9% a quarter before.
Markets on Wall Street were expected to pause on Wednesday after a big sell-off on Tuesday, as investors waited for the Open Market Committee's minutes, which would indicate market direction in a calm session. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures remained unchanged at 2,043.95 before the start of Wednesday's session.
Eurostat released latest European Union consume price indices, which in all aspects turned out exactly as predicted by analysts, confirming stagnation in the EU. CPI remained unchanged on a monthly basis, as forecasted. In the meantime, on a year-to-year basis consumer prices decreased by 0.2% and that also was expected by experts.
The Japanese economy grew by 0.5% during the first quarter of 2016, surprising analysts who forecast a 0.1% expansion. Household consumption gained 0.5% and government demand advanced 0.6%, contributing respectively 0.3% and 0.2% to the growth, and erasing the negative effects of a low investment level.
Latest United Kingdom's labour data published on Wednesday did not change GBP/USD currency pair's downfall. Jobless rate in UK stayed 5.1% in March and jobless claims number improved from 14,700 to negative 2,400. In addition, average weekly wages in March increased a little bit better, by 2% instead of 1.9% in February.
Japanese annualized GDP growth of 1.7% did not affect the trade between the US and Japanese currencies, as the Greenback continues to rise against the Yen, as US consumer prices in April rose the most in three years, bolstering expectations that the Fed will increase interest rates this year. The Buck was up 0.3% to 109.50 against the Yen by
The bullion weakened ahead of the FOMC meeting minutes release, failing to gain a foothold above the $1,280 mark, as it hovered around the $1,273 level. Gold traded highest during the day at $1,281 and lowest at $1,273 on Wednesday. The data release will help investors speculate on whether a rate hike is likely to take place later in June.
The cost of production inputs along with wholesale prices took a further hit in New Zealand, as Q1 data showed a 1.0% plunge in the Producer Price Index for inputs, which is slightly better than the 1.2% drop over the previous quarter. The news left analysts disappointed as they had anticipated a 0.3% gain in the measure. The Output PPI dipped 0.2%, recovering
Australian wage growth became significantly slower in Q1, showing the lowest levels in more than 20 years. The annual growth in the Australian Wage Price Index showed 2.1%, down from the final quarter of 2015, when wages displayed a 2.2% advance, a level last seen in 1997 when the series of data were first recorded. The quarterly WPI rose 0.4%,
Stock exchanges in Europe trailed Asian stocks by opening also lower on Wednesday, as at the session opening UK's FTSE 100 dropped 0.5% to 6,140.13 points and German DAX 30 index fell 0.8% to 9,811.80 points. In the meantime, French CAC 40 lost 0.6% to 4,272.74 points and pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 shrunk by 0.7% to 2,917.54 points.
Crude oil futures on Wednesday were stagnant and stayed just below multi-month highs reached on Tuesday after an API report was published, that US oil stockpiles have decreased during last week. WTI futures surged 0.4% to $ 48.49 per barrel and Brent added 0.2% to 49.38 per barrel. Energy Information Administration of the US was set to release official stockpile
Low performance in the US exchanges on Tuesday, due to speculations about future monetary policy, affected start of trading in Asian markets on Wednesday. Hang Seng index fell 1.1% to 19,889.55 points, Shanghai Composite dropped 1.1% to 2,811.75 points and Korean Kospi slipped 0.8% to 1,952.00 points. In the meantime Japanese Nikkei 225 index increased 0.6% to 16,748.36 points.
On Tuesday, Europe's stock markets finished mostly lower. Germany's DAX 30 Index dropped 0.7%, finishing at 9,880.50, whereas the United Kingdom's FTSE 100 Index grew 0.1%, closing at 6,160.00 points. In the meantime, France's CAC 40 Index declined 0.4%, ending at 4,294.30, and the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 Index gave up almost 0.6%, closing Tuesday's trading session at 2,934.50 points.
The major US stock markets opened Tuesday's trading session in red, following yesterday's successful closing. The Standard and Poor's 500 Index lost 0.14%, opening at 2,063.73 points, whereas the Dow Jones Index dropped 0.09%, starting at 17,694.41, and the Nasdaq Composite Index declined 0.12% to 4,769.73 points.
In the United States, housing starts grew 6.6% to a 1.17 million-unit pace on a seasonally adjusted basis in April, according to the Department of Commerce. In the meantime, March's housing starts were revised up from the originally reported 1.09 million pace to 1.10 million-unit pace. Analysts surveyed by Reuters expected the 1.13 million-unit pace in April.
The US Department of Commerce reported that consumer prices jumped 0.4% month-over-month in April, surpassing the 0.3% forecast and following the 0.1% increase seen in March. That was the biggest gain since February 2013. Meanwhile, on an annual basis, the CPI increased 1.1%, in line with market expectations and following March's 0.9% rise.
European stocks opened strong as the positive sentiment spilled over from global bourses. The DAX 30 index gained 0.5% and showed 10 005.89 points, whilst the FTSE 100 rose 0.4% to trade at 6 177.03 points, awaiting news on the UK inflation data in April. The consumer price index is anticipated to grow 0.3% on a monthly basis in April,
The Producer Price Index climbed 0.3% and surprised analysts who had forecast a 0.1% gain. The occurrence is chiefly surprising because the Consumer Price Index failed to escape the red zone a few days before. The year-on-year PPI, however showed -2.7%, which is still a significant improvement from the -4.7% level the month before.
The UK inflation rate release on Tuesday is anticipated to show a steady 0.5% year-on-year advance for April, continuously showing the highest level in 15 months. The forecast is disappointingly lower than the government target which is set at an annual 2%. Core inflation, however, is likely to drop to the 1.4% mark, as opposed to 1.5% in March.
The UK CPI fell short of analyst expectations as the data release showed a 0.1% monthly decrease in the measure for April, missing the predicted 0.3%, with air fares, clothing and vehicles being the main drivers for the price decrease. Data on the year-on-year inflation level showed further disappointment with 0.3%, in comparison to an expected 0.5%, while core inflation
Increase in oil prices lifted trading mood not only in US, but also in Asia, as energy and resource stocks became top performers. Japanese Nikkei 225 index surged 1.1% to 16,652.80 points and Topix climbed 1.1% and closed at 1,335.85 points. Shanghai Composite rose 0.2% to 2,855.21 points, while Shenzhen Composite added 0.5% to 1,823.65 points.