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OVERNIGHT MARKET SNAPSHOT FOR FRIDAY 20/03/20 (as at 7:30am AEDT)
- SPI200 (Jun) overnight futures up 119 pts to 4944
- SP500 up 11.33 pts to 2409.43
- NASDAQ up 160.73 pts to 7150.58
- Dow Jones up 188.27 pts to 20,087.19
- FTSE100 up 71.03 pts to 5151.61
- DAX30 up 168.72 pts to 8610.43
- GOLD futures (April Contract) down $3.70 to $1474.20 an ounce
- COPPER futures (Comex May) up $0.010 to $2.161 a pound
- OIL futures US Session (Nymex Apr) up $4.81 to $25.18 a barrel
- CRB Index up 7.29 pts to 127.63
- AUDUSD trading at 0.5740
- EURUSD trading at 1.0688
- GBPUSD trading at 1.1516
- USDJPY trading at 110.6600
- USD Index US Session (ICE June) up 1.994 to 103.537
US Indexes opened weaker but managed to edge higher during the session to end with some minor gains. The global boost in liquidity and stimulus for the market may be finally starting to placate investors but a major bounce may still be a while away. Bonds markets stabilized to some extent as US Treasury yields generally fell in volatile trade which is a sign to traders that the Feds efforts are working. Bond yields in Italy and Europe generally fell also which may give investors some confidence going into the weekend. Volatility will be the key now as traders will be watching for a contraction in volatility to assess whether markets are really starting to stabilize. The DOW ended up 0.95% while the broader SP500 was up 0.47% and the Nasdaq ended stronger up 2.30% for the session. In Europe, stock Indexes ended higher as the BOE added stimulus to the mix to support markets. Investors remain cautious as wounds from the meltdown will take some time to heal. Many will be waiting to see the economic numbers out in the future to see the damage to global economies as job losses increase and household spending decreases.
The USD Index continued to surge as the demand for dollar denominated assets such as bonds, remains high. The worlds dollar dependent system is being supported by major stimulus to keep the swap market (where the US Fed accepts other currencies as collateral in exchange for dollars) liquid and Central bankers said that it will be in place for at least the next six months. The EURUSD was again squeezed lower as the USD continued to rally. If the dollar buying does not ease then sellers of the Euro will be looking down to 1.0450. The GBPUSD has also been mauled over the last few days as price has dropped over 1400 pips. The sellers continued to put on the pressure overnight and will only stop when the dollar has a pullback. The AUDUSD spiked lower yesterday out of the blue around 11am as sellers piled in to spike the currency lower. Once Europe opened for trade we saw buyers step back into the action to lift price to retest up to the 0.6000 area. The move lower through 0.6000 looks like a major stop run of lows from the GFC so we will see what happens over the coming days to see if a bounce may be on the cards. The USDJPY had a big session to continue the charge higher as the dollar steamed ahead. Buyers may now be looking up to the 112.200 zone.
SPOT GOLD continued to grind lower off the recent highs around 1540 as we expected that bulls were getting ahead of themselves. The action looks better so we are now watching for the 1450 zone to provide some support for a run higher but will need to see higher lows hold. Crude Oil rallied to squeeze out some of the recent sellers after the brutal capitulation selloff the previous session. Bulls will need to now lay the ground work and build a base if price has made a low and the recent action was a flush of major lows. Copper spiked lower into the 2.000 level as expected during the Asian session only to grind its way back to where it started. The action looks like a flush so we are now watching to see if buyers can put in a higher low in search of a base and show the first signs that the support level can hold.
Cryptocurrencies had a big night as confidence came back into the action along with bargain hunters to soak up the intraday selling pressure. Bitcoin led the charge and is currently trading at $6184.6 up 14.31% while Ethereum is also up strong at $134.94 up 14.05% and Ripple is trading at $0.16142 up 10.37%.
The ASX200 came under fire again after the RBA cut rates by another 25 basis points and also added a QE stimulus package of sorts. The Index brushed aside the news and continued to move lower to end down another 170.3 points to 4782.9. The Gold and Financial sectors were the biggest drag on the index while Utilities and Healthcare ended in the green. Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones by 1092 to 232 and 185 ended unchanged.
The ASX200 is expected to open up 110 points as the overnight markets were dragged higher by some bargains hunting.
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ECONOMIC DATA OUT TODAY (AEDT)
EUR German PPI 6pm
EUR Current Account 8pm
CAD Retail Sales Data 11:30pm
USD Existing Home Sales 1am
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SPI200 INTRADAY LEVELS TO WATCH
