22.03.24 Macro Morning

 | Mar 22, 2024 09:46

Following the Federal Reserve meeting in the previous session, the USD and bond yields rebounded overnight with the Bank of England holding fire while the Swiss Central Bank put in a surprise rate cut. This increase currency volatility particularly with Euro while Wall Street was able to eke out a new high, although equity futures are looking a little wobbly for the final session here in Asia today.

The US Dollar Index was up more than 0.6% for the session as a result of the volatility with Euro unable to recover from its retreat below the 1.09 handle while the Australian dollar also pulled back significantly to remain below the 66 cent level.

10 year Treasury yields rose slightly to return to their four month high, while Brent crude pulled back again to just above the $85USD per barrel level. Meanwhile gold had significant intrasession volatility to eventually close just below the $2200USD per ounce level.

Looking at markets from yesterday’s session here in Asia, where mainland and offshore Chinese share markets were trying to get back on track with the Shanghai Composite closing dead flat while the Hang Seng was up nearly 2% to 16909 points.

The daily chart was starting to look more optimistic with price action bunching up at the 16000 point level before breaking out in the previous session trying to make a run for the end of 2023 highs at 17000 points with the downtrend line broken. However this has been thwarted as monthly resistance levels are kicking in: