US indices finished the first trading session of a new month with decent gains. S&P 500 gained 0.99%, Dow Jones moved 0.47% higher while Nasdaq surged 1.28%. Russell 2000 added 1.05%
Indices from Asia-Pacific traded higher today. Nikkei and Kospi gained 1%, S&P/ASX 200 moved 0.4% higher while Nifty 50 added 0.2%. Indices from China rallied
DAX futures point to a higher opening of the European cash session
US Senate passed a debt ceiling bill and it will now head to the White House for President Biden to sign. Biden will deliver a speech at 7:00 pm ET today (00:00 am BST) and it is expected that he will sign the bill then
Fed Harker said the US central bank is approaching a point where it can hold rates in place. Harker said that incoming data is being monitored closely in order to assess whether any additional tightening is needed
ECB Panetta said that European Central Bank has not yet reached rate peak but caution that it is not the time to go fast on rates
BoJ Governor Ueda said that the Bank of Japan will maintain massive monetary easing given that it will take some time to achieve the CPI target.
Australian home loans dropped 3.8% MoM in April (exp. +3.0% MoM)
Cryptocurrencies trade higher – Bitcoin gains 0.8%, Ethereum adds 1.3% while Dogecoin trades 0.7% higher
Energy commodities trade slightly higher – oil adds 0.5% while US natural gas prices advance 0.4%
AUD and NZD are the best performing major currencies while USD and JPY lag the most
