Affected by the Fed’s tightening policy news, U.S. stocks opened lower on Friday (8th), and with the start of the U.S. corporate earnings season next week, market trading tends to be cautious, investors wait for the earnings report to be announced before doing decision-making, and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is still the focus of investors.
Before the deadline,Dow Jones Industrial Averagefell more than 100 points or nearly 0.31%,Nasdaq Composite Indexdown 0.9%,S&P 500 Indexdown 0.49%,Philadelphia SemiconductorThe index fell 1.62%.
In terms of the Russian-Ukrainian war, although Russia said it hopes to end the military operation within a few days, the exchange of fire in eastern Ukraine has escalated. According to foreign media reports, the 27 member states of the European Union officially approved the fifth round of sanctions once morest Russia and decided to ban coal imports from Russia starting in August this year. At the same time, the U.S. Congress yesterday passed two sanctions once morest Russia, including banning Russian energy imports and canceling Russia’s most-favored-nation trade status, and signed by President Biden into effect.
The Bank of Russia announced today that it will cut interest rates by 300 basis points (12 yards), bringing the benchmark interest rate down to 17%. The dollar was less volatile once morest the Russian ruble following the announcement of the rate change.
The Bank of Russia said that the latest data showed that the current price growth rate has slowed down significantly, including changes in the exchange rate of the ruble, pointing out that the external environment of the Russian economy remains difficult, financial stability risks still exist, and further interest rate cuts are expected in the next few meetings.
U.S. Treasury yields were mixed on Friday, by press time 10-year Treasury yieldrose to 2.713%, while the 5-year and 30-year interest rates continued to invert, in addition to the inverted yield curve, another recession signal also flashed: the indicator of global economic growth.Dow JonesThe transportation index fell into a bear market on Wednesday, bad news for the U.S. economy and the outlook for U.S. stocks.
In addition, as expectations of a sharp rate hike by the Fed support the dollar,US dollar indexIt traded higher on Friday, trading at 100.115 at the time of writing, breaking the 100 mark and approaching a new high since July 2020. Affected by the release of strategic oil reserves, international oil prices stabilized following falling for three consecutive days. West Texas crude oil (WTI),Brent CrudeThe former edged up 0.1% and the latter fell 0.26%.
In other news, France will hold its first round of presidential and parliamentary elections over the weekend, with runoffs in two weeks. President Emmanuel Macron’s lead over top-right populist Marine Le Pen has shrunk to just 3.5 percent from regarding 30 percent at the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war, according to the latest polls. Some believe that Ray-Ban is expected to beat Macron in the runoff.
As of 21:00 on Friday (8th) Taipei time:
Stocks in focus:
Spirit Airlines(SAVE-US) rose 1.74 percent to $26.97 a share in early trade.
Spirit Airlines had earlier agreed to be acquired by Frontier Airlines’ parent company, Frontier Group.ULCC-US), but JetBlue Airways (JBLU-US) made an all-cash offer to Spirit Airlines for $33 per share, totaling $3.6 billion, which Spirit believes is a “better offer” from JetBlue that the board is evaluating and will “take what it believes is consistent with Spirit and actions in the best interests of its shareholders”.
Robin Hood (HOOD-US) fell 6.75% to $11.26 a share in early trade
The stock rating of Robinhood Markets, an online financial services and stock trading platform, was downgraded to “Sell” from “Neutral” by Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs analysts believe that the expectations for Robinhood are generally too optimistic, pointing out that the The bar for companies to be profitable in 2023 is high.
Baijian (BIIB-US) fell 0.12% to $211.40 a share in early trade
Baijian’s new Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm is subject to restrictions on the scope of Medicare, and the US government has stated that the scope of medical insurance is limited to patients who are enrolled in clinical trials of the drug.
Today’s key economic data:
- The final monthly growth rate of U.S. wholesale inventories in February was 2.5%, expected 2.1%, and the previous value of 2.1%
Wall Street Analysis:
Oanda analyst Craig Erlam said investors took the prospect of high inflation and rapid rate hikes in their stride and appeared to be unaffected, although there might be more wild swings in the coming weeks.
With a major shift in investor expectations for monetary policy, stocks have struggled a little this week to accept that interest rates will rise, said Anthony Saglimbene, global market strategist at Ameriprise Financial.
Kelsey Berro, a fixed-income portfolio manager at JPMorgan Asset Management, said that what we are seeing now is a strategic re-steepening of U.S. Treasury yields, but the curve will continue to flatten going forward as the Fed has expressed a desire to raise rates quickly to the mid-2000s. sex. On top of that, the Fed may need to tighten the currency above neutral, and the front-end yields might still move higher.
