Overnight on Wall Street: Thursday 23/01/2020

The spreading of the coronavirus across borders and the rise in deaths dampened sentiment and instilled fears of denting economic growth. The gains in the tech sector helped major US equity indices to trimmed losses.

• Dow Jones Average Industrial lost 10 points to finish at 29,186
• S&P500 ended flat at 3,322.
• Nasdaq Composite added 13 points to close at 9,384.

On the earnings front, Netflix’s share price dropped by 4% as revenue and global net subscriber growth failed to impress as the company offered a weak outlook for the start of 2020. The company faces new competition with new streaming services.

IBM stock price gained 4% on a better-than-expected fourth quarter. The surprise revenue growth was mostly driven by cloud and cognitive solutions.

Currency Markets

In the FX market, the price action of major currencies pairs was limited.

USDCAD

As widely expected the Bank of Canda kept its interest rate unchanged at 1.75%. Investors took note of the dovish tones with respect to the rate outlook. The USDCAD pair rallied on the comments in anticipation of rate cuts by the BoC despite mixed US economic data.

The USDCAD rose above the 1.31 level.

USDCAD (Hourly Chart)

Source: GO MT4

GBPUSD

It was another day of gains for the Sterling. The CBI report which is a survey of 300 manufacturing firms shows that business optimism improved significantly in the quarter to January. The boost in sentiment in the manufacturing lifted the GBPUSD pair to 1.31 level.

GBPUSD (Hourly Chart)

Source: GO MT4

Commodities

The fears supply disruptions appeared to be short-lived as investors fret over the oil glut and global demand. The API also reported a rise in weekly crude oil stock from 1.1M to 1.6M.

As of writing, WTI and Brent Crude are trading in the vicinity of $56 and $62 respectively.

USOUSD and UKOUSD (Daily Chart)

Source: GO MT4

Gold was practically unchanged yesterday. As of writing, the XAUUSD pair was on the rise as the coronavirus sparked fears of an outbreak and its negative effects on global economic growth. The pair rose to $1,562 as investors digested the news of China’s city suspended outbound flights and rail service.

Key upcoming events

World Economic Forum – Davos 
Westpac Consumer Confidence (Australia)
Public Sector Net Borrowing (UK)
BoC Consumer Price Index, Rate Statement, Monetary Policy Report, Interest Rate Decision and Press Conference (Canada)
Chicago Fed National Activity Index, Housing Price Index, and Existing Home Sales (US)

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