Latest News

Shares jump on tech boost; fragile yen on intervention watch

World stocks increased on Wednesday led by tech names as attention shifts to revenues from U.S. megacaps today, while the yen was stuck near 34year lows, keeping traders careful of intervention from Japan.

An after-hours rise in shares of electrical vehicle maker Tesla, following its pledge of new models, and upbeat incomes from some U.S. companies raised belief, stimulating a. rally in tech stocks in Asia, where the sector. rose 3.6% and Europe, where it got 2.5%.

Europe's broad STOXX 600 was 0.2% higher, as the. rally in tech stocks - helped by a 10% surge in wafer maker ASM. International on raised earnings projections - offset. soft incomes from drugmaker Roche and high-end items. maker Kering, whose shares was up to their least expensive given that. 2017.

Nasdaq futures were up 0.65%.

It seems like today is getting back to market. principles and revenues. A minimum of briefly, we are. sidestepping geopolitics which have been affecting markets in. the last two weeks, stated Samy Chaar, primary economist at Lombard. Odier.

Safe haven gold has fallen more than 4% because its. Friday high to stand at $2.317.9 an ounce.

Still to come in an earnings-packed week are results from. tech giants Meta Platforms, Alphabet and. Microsoft.

The favorable information in European PMIs will drive up. revisions to GDP consensus in Europe. In the U.S. the data, so. far, is hard to read, Chaar added.

DATA DIVERGENCE

Purchasing Managers Index studies on Tuesday showed general. business activity in the euro zone and in Britain expanded at. their fastest pace in almost a year, while service activity. cooled in the U.S.

. That divergence helped the euro to push above. $ 1.07 in Asia trade, its greatest in more than a week, though it. failed to hold and was last down 0.16% on the day at $1.0684.

For when, US-eurozone divergence in data has pertained to the. advantage of euro/dollar, said Francesco Pesole, currency. strategist at ING, in a note.

( Though) tough data - inflation and work above all -. has actually been the real drag on the pair so far, so caution is. necessitated when it comes to rallies prompted by activity surveys. like PMIs.

U.S. gross domestic product figures and the March personal. intake expense data - the Fed's preferred inflation. gauge - due later today will be essential for the dollar and. for investors' efforts to evaluate the course of U.S. rates.

Markets now see the first Federal Reserve rate cut being available in. September, with expectations of 42 basis points of cuts this. year. At the start of the year, traders had actually priced in 150 bps of. reducing for the whole year.

INTERVENTION ZONE

The drastic shift in rate expectations has elevated Treasury. yields and lifted the dollar in the past few weeks, with. pressure felt especially in Asia.

In the most recent illustration, Indonesia's reserve bank. delivered a surprise rate trek on Wednesday, stepping up efforts. to support the rupiah currency.

The Japanese yen was last at 154.9 per dollar,. trading at its least expensive given that 1990 ahead of the Bank of Japan's. two-day policy meeting that concludes on Friday. The yen is down. almost 9% this year.

The dollar/yen set, which is sensitive to U.S. yields, has. traded in an incredibly narrow range in the previous few weeks, with. traders careful that a push above 155 might raise the danger of. dollar-selling intervention by Japanese authorities.

A senior official of Japan's ruling celebration informed they. were not yet in active discussion on what yen levels would be. considered worthy of market intervention, though the currency's. slide towards 160 to the dollar might prod policymakers to act.

The yield on 10-year Treasury notes was at. 4.638% on Wednesday, up a fraction on the day, having actually dipped as. low as 4.568% on Tuesday.

Oil rates were down a little, with U.S. crude at. $ 83.03 per barrel and Brent at $88.02.

(source: Reuters)