– US indices finished yesterday’s trading higher. S&P 500 rose 1.29%, Dow Jones moved 0.78% higher and Nasdaq jumped 1.90%. Russell 2000 advanced 0.76%

– Indices from Asia-Pacific traded mixed today. Nikkei traded 0.31% lower, S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.32%, Nifty 50 moved 0.76% higher and Kospi added 1.20%. Indices from China traded mostly higher

– DAX futures point to a higher opening of the European cash session today

– President Biden during his annual State of the Union address said he will announce new standards to require all construction material used in Federal infrastructure projects to be made in America

– Also Biden asked Congress to raise the debt ceiling, told China’s Xi the US seeks competition not conflict and proposes to quadruple the tax on corporate stock buyback

– Morgan Stanley expects another 25 bp rate hike in May after yesterday’s Powell’s speech

– China declined a US request for a phone call between the Pentagon chief and China’s defense minister

– Fitch revised China 2023 growth forecast to 5.0% from previous 4.1% as it expects faster economic recovery than previously expected

– BoC Gov Macklem said that central bank needs time to assess rate hike impact on households and firms

– The Reserve Bank of India raised its key repo rate by 25 bps to 6.5% during its February meeting as widely expected

– API report showed that US crude inventories unexpectedly dropped by 2.184 million barrels

– Mixed moods prevail on cryptocurrency markets. Bitcoin pulled back slightly to $23200 mark, while Ethereum failed to break above $1700 and retreated to $1670 level

– Energy commodities trade mixed with Brent fell 0.10 and WTI ads 0.15%

– Precious metals gain as USD loses some ground. Gold adds 0.25% while silver jumps nearly 1.0%

– AUD and EUR are the best performing major currencies while USD and JPY lag the most