Today's Market Overview According To The Bank Of Canada

Cryptos were mainly trading lower, with Bitcoin once again sliding below $23,000, and other currencies such as Ethereum, Cardano, and Dogecoin suffering sharper losses. As a result, the Bitcoin/Ethereum rate has risen to its highest level in more than two months. The whole projected crypto market cap is still more than one trillion dollars.

On Tuesday, the US market indexes (US 500 and US Tech 100) traded down, but the US 30 index managed to conclude with a slight gain. Markets in Europe have largely traded sideways. Only little advances were noted in indexes such as the France 40 and Spain 35, as well as a minor correction by Wednesday morning. Meanwhile, Asian markets, notably the Japan 225 Yen and the China A50, began to trade higher over the night hours, with the morning pullback not totally erasing those gains.

The Bank of Canada (BoC) will publish its monetary policy decision on Wednesday. While most foresee another 25-bp boost, there seems to be a lack of agreement among experts on such a move.

EUR/USD

Despite the dollar's broad stability versus other major currencies, the EUR/USD maintained its favorable mood. Despite trading for a few hours over 1.09 on Monday, the pair was unable to break above that level. With the exception of the strong Australian dollar, the euro has continued to advance versus practically all other major currencies (AUD).

The service PMI for both Germany and the eurozone moved beyond the key barrier of 50 on Tuesday, indicating that general mood among purchasing managers is more positive than negative, with the PMI at 50.4 for Germany and 50.7 for the eurozone. On the other hand, the manufacturing PMI continues below 50, with Germany's falling from 47.4 in the previous report to 47.0.

The findings of the Ifo business conditions survey will be released on Wednesday. When the data were last reported, indicators were generally improving.

GOLD

Gold prices have remained up on a weekly basis after hitting a fresh high in April 2022 on Tuesday. Other precious metal markets showed mixed attitude, with silver recovering just somewhat after Monday's sharp losses, while palladium totally rebounded and platinum trades up on a weekly basis.

WTI OIL

WTI Oil Prices fell for the first time this week, with WTI crude oil trading at times below $80 a barrel and ended the day 1.8% down. Prices began to fall in the afternoon, with the majority of the losses occurring prior to the announcement of the American Petroleum Institute's Weekly Statistical Bulletin (API). According to API statistics, crude oil stocks increased again, this time by 13 million barrels. Simultaneously, gasoline stocks increased by 0.6 million barrels, while distillate inventories decreased by 1.9 million barrels.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) will disclose comparable sorts of statistics in its Weekly Petroleum Status Report on Wednesday, as is customary.

US 500

Major stock market indexes such as the US Tech 100 and US 500 finished down on Tuesday, however on a weekly basis, both indices remain firmly in the green after Monday's good performance, and the US 500 has so far defended the 4,000-level.

On Tuesday, 3M (-6.23%) was the worst-performing stock in the S&P 500 index. Earnings of $2.28 per share were considerably lower than in the same quarter last year, and the business declared it would reduce 2,500 manufacturing positions due to a decrease in demand.

Meanwhile, Raytheon Technologies (+3.37%) was one of the top performers, led by a substantial rise in sales to $19 billion as well as an 11% increase in order backlog to $150 billion due to increased government expenditure on the Ukraine crisis.

Following the results announcement, Microsoft originally rose by roughly 4% in the extended session. While sales and profits were in line with expectations, the 38% increase in Azure's cloud division was a pleasant surprise for investors. Gains were reversed subsequently, when the company's CFO told investors on the next conference call that revenues in the current quarter would be at least one billion dollars lower than expected.

The earnings season resumed on Wednesday, with US Bancorp, Tesla, IBM, and others releasing their own quarterly reports.