Wall Street indices finished yesterday's trading with big gains after US PPI report for July show big deceleration in headline and core producers' price growth
S&P 500 finished 1.68% higher, Dow Jones added 1.04%, Nasdaq rallied 2.43% and small-cap Russell 2000 moved 1.55% higher
Indices from Asia-Pacific trade mixed today - Nikkei drops 0.1%, S&P/ASX 200 gains 0.4%, Kospi jumps 0.6%, while indices from China trade slightly lower
European index futures point to a higher opening of the today's cash session on the Old Continent
NZD is top laggard among major currencies today after Reserve Bank of New Zealand unexpectedly decided to cut rates
RBNZ delivered a 25 basis point rate cut, putting the cash rate at 5.25%. Markets and economists were expecting rates to stay unchanged at 5.50%
RBNZ Governor Orr said that he is confident inflation is back in its target range and that the bank can begin to normalise rates
Money markets are expecting RBNZ to follow with another cut at its next meeting in October. 29 basis points of easing are priced in for October 9 meeting, while 67 basis points of easing are priced in by November 6 meeting
API report suggested a big 5.2 million barrel draw in US oil inventories (exp. -2.0 mb)
Major cryptocurrencies are trading mixed - Ethereum gains 0.3%, Bitcoin trades flat and Dogecoin drops 0.3%
Energy commodities trade slightly higher, with oil and US natural gas prices adding 0.2-0.3%
Precious metals pull back - gold drops 0.1%, silver trades 0.3% lower and platinum declines 0.5%
EUR and GBP are the best performing major currencies, while NZD lags the most