US Markets U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday as the Federal Reserve meeting minutes indicated that policymakers plan smaller interest rate hikes moving forward. - Nordstrom fell 4.25% after the company cut its profit forecast for the financial year a day earlier, which caused shares to fall by 8% on Tuesday.
- Tesla rose nearly 8% after Citi upgraded the stock from sell to neutral.
- The current 10 Year U.S. Treasury yield is set at 3.75780%
| Dow Jones | 34,098.10 | 1.18% | | S&P 500 | 4,003.58 | 1.36% | | Nasdaq | 11,174.41 | 1.36% | | Russell 2000 | 1,860.44 | 1.16% | *Stock Market data as of the last closing bell. Data received directly from the reference indexes through ICE Data Services. Do you not understand any of these figures? Check out our explainer.
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Canadian Markets Tiff Macklem, Governor of the Bank of Canada, urged Federal and Provincial governments to only implement target and temporary fiscal policies to support Canadians struggling with high inflation. - Macklem recommended policies that focus on those most vulnerable to the effects of inflation.
- Some Canadian provinces have copied U.S. states by providing broad stimulus cheques, which many economists say will make inflation worse.
- For example, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith this week announced wide inflation-relief policies, including $600 payments for each child and senior for families with household incomes under $180,000.
*Canadian stock prices are as of the last close. Data received directly from the references indexes through ICE Data Services
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European Markets European stocks rose on Wednesday as investors reacted to economic data from the Eurozone. - The Stoxx 600 gained 0.7% on the day, with most of those gains coming late in the trading session.
- Travel and leisure stocks led markets, gaining 1.9%, followed by retail and mining stocks, which rose 1.8%.
- Credit Suisse was the worst-performing stock after a 6% drop, as the firm continues with a restructuring plan that calls for $4B in new capital from investors including a Saudi bank.
| Euro STOXX 50 | 3,958.57 | 0.31% | | UK (FTSE 100) | 7,469.61 | 0.06% | | Germany (DAX) | 14,522.79 | 0.66% | | France (CAC 40) | 6,700.44 | 0.32% | *European stock prices are as of 7 am ET. Data received directly from the reference indexes through ICE Data Services.
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Asian Markets Stocks in Asia were up after the Federal Reserve meeting minutes indicated that policymakers will likely slow down the pace of interest rate hikes. - Asian economies have been hurt by the stronger USD, which has undermined their purchasing power as they strive to recover from the effects of the pandemic.
- Stocks in Malaysia were up after Anwar Ibrahim was announced as the new prime minister, ending the political uncertainty following the election of a hung parliament.
- Billionaire investor Bill Ackman said that the pegging of the Hong Kong dollar to the U.S. Dollar will not work in the long term as the two economies grow at different rates.
| S&P Asia 50 | 4,235.53 | 2.11% | | Japan (Nikkei 225) | 28,383.09 | 0.95% | | South Korea (KOSPI) | 2,441.33 | 0.96% | | China (Hang Seng) | 17,660.90 | 0.78% | | India (SENSEX) | 62,272.68 | 1.24% | *Asian stock prices are as of 7 am ET. Data received directly from the reference indexes through ICE Data Services.
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Commodities Oil prices fell on Wednesday and Thursday morning amid rumors that G7 countries plan to implement a high price cap for their Russian oil sanctions. - Brent lost 4% and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 4.3% on Wednesday. Both were down ~0.5% today before U.S. trading hours.
- The Energy Information Administration (EIA) said that U.S. gasoline stockpiles rose by 3.1 million barrels last week, significantly more than the increase of 383,000 barrels expected by analysts.
- Crude stockpiles fell by 3.7 million barrels, the EIA said, well above the 1.1 million barrel drawdown expected.
| Oil (NYSEARCA:OIL) | 29.33 | -3.87% | | Gold (NYSEARCA:GLD) | 163.08 | 0.62% | | Silver (NYSEARCA:SLV) | 19.81 | 1.96% | | Corn (NYSEARCA:CORN) | 26.40 | 0.53% | | Lumber (NASDAQ:WOOD) | 76.53 | 0.45% | *Commodity prices are as of 7 am ET. Data from MarketWatch. To understand why investors track the prices of these commodities, click here.
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Currency Exchange Rates The U.S. Dollar was down yesterday as investors reacted to the minutes from the Federal Reserve meeting. - The U.S. Dollar Index lost 1% on Wednesday and fell again during Asian trading hours this morning.
- The USD has dropped 5.1% so far this month, and is on track to its worst month since 2010.
- New data shows that business activity in the U.S. has declined for the fifth consecutive month and that new orders are at a 2.5-year low as higher interest rates lead to lower demand.
| UK(GBP) | £0.83 | -1.89% | | Europe (EURO) | €0.96 | -1.08% | | Canada (Canadian Dollar) | $1.33 | -0.16% | | Japan (Yen) | ¥138.24 | -2.07% | *Exchange rates as of 7 am ET. Data from Morningstar Financial Research. To understand why we track these currencies and the differences between them, click here.
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Cryptocurrency Bitcoin was stable on Wednesday, retaining its $16,000 price threshold despite suspicious market activity. - A wallet tied to the Mt. Gox hack distributed $160M in bitcoin to two different wallets belonging to unidentified recipients.
- The bitcoin were taken in 2014, as part of a hack in which 744,408 bitcoin were stolen, which led to the arrest of Alexander Vinnik in 2017. Now, this currency is being transferred on the heels of the collapse of FTX, which has caused significant turmoil in markets and lowered investor confidence.
- Altcoins have seen bigger gains than Bitcoin following the FTX bankruptcy. SOL surged 20% yesterday and BNB rose 12%.
| Bitcoin | $16,556.20 | 2.53% | | Ethereum | $1,197.34 | 1.11% | | Litecoin | $76.93 | -2.50% | | Bitcoin Cash | $115.64 | 5.85% | *Exchange rates as of 7 am ET. Data from Morningstar Financial Research. To understand why we track these currencies and the differences between them, click here.
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 |  | Liam Gill is a founder, lawyer and investor.
He previously founded Fumarii Technologies, which became a top 20 ranked cloud computing service (Yahoo Finance! 2019) valued at over $30M. He holds an LLB Laws (UK), MSc Management and Master of Laws and currently practices law in Vancouver, Canada.
|   | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is the author of "Things You Can Do," an illustrated book about climate action. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
