Global stocks subdued ahead of central bank meetings - 15.12.2022

The Dollar weakening has paused currently. The live dollar index data show the ICE US Dollar index, a measure of the dollar’s strength against a basket of six rival currencies, lost 0.2% Wednesday.

Both GBP/USD and EUR/USD slowed their climbing on Wednesday as the Ifo Institute forecast Germany’s expected winter recession will be milder than previously anticipated. Euro and Pound are lower against the Dollar currently. USD/JPY ended little changed while AUD/USD slowed its climbing yesterday with both the yen and the Australian dollar lower against the Greenback currently.

The US stock index futures are down currently after a bearish session on Wednesday as Fed chair Powell said the central bank’s policy was “still not restrictive enough” in light of too-high inflation. The three main US stock indexes booked losses ranging from 0.4% to 0.8% Wednesday with tech stocks leading losses.

European stock indexes futures are falling currently after closing little changed yesterday with basic resources shares leading losses. The Bank of England and the European Central Bank are meeting today at 13:00 CET and 14:15 CET respectively. Both central banks are expected to hike rates by 50 basis points each. Asian stock indexes futures are mostly retreating today with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index leading losses after weaker than expected Chinese industrial production and retail sales data.

Brent is up at present. Prices rose yesterday despite the Energy Information Administration report US domestic crude oil inventories rose by more than 10 million barrels last week. At the same time the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast a rebound in crude oil demand - to 1.7 million barrels per day for a total of 101.6 million bpd. The US oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures rose 2.6% and is higher currently. Brent crude gained 2.4% to $82.70 a barrel on Wednesday.