Wall Street indices finished yesterday's trading lower. S&P 500 dropped 0.89%, Dow Jones moved 0.43% lower, Nasdaq slumped 1.67% and small-cap Russell 2000 dipped 0.93%
There was no direct news that could justify the sell-off on Wall Street yesterday, and the move seems to be driven by uncertainty over whether Fed Chair Powell will confirm September rate cut today or not
Indices from Asia-Pacfic traded mostly higher today - Nikkei gained 0.4%, Kospi and Nifty 50 added 0.1%, while S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.1%. Indices from China traded mixed
European index futures point to a more or less flat opening of the cash session on the Old Continent today
Japanese yen gained after BoJ Governor Ueda took part in special parliamentary session during which discussions on recent BoJ policy moves were held
Ueda said that Bank of Japan will adjust monetary easing if Bank's economy price outlook is likely to be achieved
Ueda also said that real rates are likely to remain negative and easy financial conditions will continue to support economy
ECB Kazaks said that there is no reason not to follow on projections for rate cuts and that he is very much open to discussing rate cut at September meeting
Japanese CPI inflation remained unchanged at 2.8% YoY in July, while core inflation accelerated from 2.6% to 2.7% YoY (exp. 2.7% YoY)
New Zealand's retail sales dropped 1.2% QoQ in Q2 2024 (exp. -1% QoQ)
Major cryptocurrencies trade higher - Bitcoin gains 0.5%, Ethereum trades 1.6% higher and Dogecoin gains 1.5%
Precious metals trade higher - gold gains 0.4%, silver and palladium rally 1.1% and platinum adds 0.7%
JPY and AUD are the best performing major currencies, while USD and CHF lag the most