Morning Ticker for December 13, 2022: US and Taxes Up, Asia Mixed, Oil and Precious Metals Rising

XTB: US Indices All major Wall Street indices managed to trade up more than 1% yesterday. The S&P 500 rose 1.43%, the Dow Jones 1.58% and the Nasdaq 1.26%. The Russell 2000 gained 1.22%.

– Asia-Pacific indices traded mixed today. The Nikkei and Nifty 50 rose 0.4%, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.3%, the Kospi fell 0.1% and China indices traded mixed.

– DAX futures open slightly higher for the European cash session

– Hong Kong authorities announced that citizens will no longer need to have a mobile Covid monitoring app and the 3-day monitoring period for arrivals will be removed.

– Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has been detained in the Bahamas and is likely to be extradited to the United States to face criminal charges.

– Bank of Canada Governor Macklem said clear evidence of a slowdown in inflation is expected next spring.

– Japan’s trade minister said he will hold talks with the U.S. commerce secretary on export restrictions to China and restrictions on chip exports, a sign Japan is considering imposing restrictions similar to those in the U.S. and the Netherlands.

– Cryptocurrencies are less traded. Bitcoin is down 0.1%, Ethereum is down 0.3% and Dogecoin is down 0.8%. Apecoin and Waves are down over 7% each.

– Oil trades higher on fundamentals – While supply in the US continues to be affected by the shutdown of the Keystone pipeline, China continues to open its doors, signaling increased demand. Brent and WTI are trading 1% higher today

– Precious metals benefit as USD weakens – Silver and platinum trade 0.7% higher while gold gains 0.2%

– AUD and NZD were the best performing currencies, while JPY and USD fell the most

WTI (OIL.WTI) defended the $72.00 support zone and started to recover. Prices continued yesterday’s gains and broke back above $74 a barrel today amid encouraging news from China.