Stocks down after Bank of Japan rate bump - 19.3.2024

The Dollar strengthening is intact currently. The live dollar index data show the ICE US Dollar index, a measure of the dollar’s strength against a basket of six rival currencies, ended 0.2% higher on Monday.

EUR/USD joined GBP/USD’s continued sliding on Monday while Eurostat reported euro area trade surplus rose in January. Both Pound and euro are lower against the dollar currently. Both AUD/USD and USD/JPY halted their retreating yesterday with both the yen and Australian dollar lower against the Greenback currently after the Bank of Japan moved its key target for short-term rates to a range of 0% to 0.1%, its first rate increase since 2007.

Futures on three main US stock indexes are lower currently with the yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury up at 4.316%. US markets closed up on Monday with the three main stock benchmarks recording daily gains in the range from 0.2% to 0.8% ahead of the two-day upcoming Federal Reserve meeting starting today.

European stock indexes futures are mixed currently after closing mixed on Monday with telecoms shares leading losses. Asian indexes futures are mostly lower today with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index leading losses while the Bank of Japan hiked interest rates but signaled that Japanese monetary conditions will remain largely accommodative.

Brent is retracing down currently. Oil prices ended about 2% higher yesterday as Iraq, OPEC's second-largest producer, said it would reduce crude exports 130,000 barrels per day (bpd) in coming months to 3.3 million bpd to compensate for exceeding its OPEC+ quota since January. US West Texas Intermediate WTI rose 2.1% but is lower currently. Brent added 1.8% to $86.89 a barrel on Monday.