Equity Markets

US markets sold off last night with Tech and growth stocks particularly hard hit. The Nasdaq posted its worst day since March. Tech stocks came under heavy selling pressure as traders rotated away from growth stocks into value stocks on expectations inflation will rise in line with the global economic recovery.

• Dow Jones down 35 (0.10%)
• NASDAQ down 350 (2.55%)
• S&P 500 down 44 (1.04%)
• Russell 2000 down 58 (2.59%)

With a quarterly earnings season, that has seen strong results, winding down, investors are contemplating the next catalyst for equities. With Commodity prices continuing to rise inflation concerns have come to the fore.

Economic Announcements

There is a quiet day ahead in scheduled economic releases with only the Australian budget released tonight being of any consequence.

The Treasurer is expected to announce a budget in far better shape than forecast, with a rapid recovery of the labour market and records iron ore prices lifting revenues and greatly reducing the deficit that was previously forecast to be around $200 billion.

FX Markets

FX markets had a volatile ride last night, with an initial sell-off in the US dollar reversing later in the session as inflation fears surfaced.

Risk on pair AUDUSD broke its US 0.78.c resistance level, rising almost to 0.79c before retreating as equity markets started to sell-off.

GBPUSD also strongly broke out of its 3-month range, rising to its highest level against the greenback since February. This continues the strong rally at the end of last week on the back of a stronger than expected showing for the pro-business Tories in local elections.

Cryptos

We saw a roller coaster ride for cryptos as well last night with high volatility returning to this asset class.

Ethereum broke the 4200 level after gapping up strongly on the open as crypto traders continued to rotate out of Bitcoin into other alt coins, with Ethereum being the main beneficiary. Bitcoin has now dropped to only 45% of the Crypto market by market cap, its lowest level since June 2018.

Cryptos did see a late session sell-off with ETHUSD dropping back below 4000 after the US equity markets closed, with no obvious news-based catalyst for the move.

Source: zerohedge.com

Wednesday, 12 May 2023 – Indicative Index Dividends
^{Dividends are in Points}

Symbol	Dividend
ASX200	0.06
WS30	2.105
US500	0..19
US2000	0.074
NDX100	0
CAC40	0.01
STOXX50	0
ESP35	0
ITA40	0
FTSE100	0
DAX30	0
HK50	2.009
JP225	0
INDIA50	0