US equity futures were little changed while Asian stocks rose in holiday-thinned trading as investors assessed the Federal Reserve’s policy path following Friday’s US jobs data.
(Bloomberg) — US equity futures were little changed while Asian stocks rose in holiday-thinned trading as investors assessed the Federal Reserve’s policy path following Friday’s US jobs data.
S&P 500 contracts rose less than 0.1% and MSCI Inc.’s Asia-Pacific equity index added 0.2%. Trading volumes were light with markets across Europe, Hong Kong and Australia closed for Easter holidays.
In the US premarket activity, Tesla Inc. edged lower after cutting prices of all models for the second time this year. Micron Technology Inc. advanced 6.5% after rival Samsung Electronics said on Friday that it would cut memory chip production.
Treasuries held a retreat from Friday, when a solid US hiring report bolstered bets for another Fed rate increase. The next major data point is Wednesday’s report on consumer prices, which is expected to show a 0.4% monthly increase in core CPI.
“The Fed will still see the need for further cooling in the labor market,” Win Thin, global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman, wrote in a research note. “This week’s CPI and PPI data are likely to underscore the fact that inflation remains stubbornly high and so we look for the hawkish tilt in Fed comments to continue.”
End May Be in Sight for Global Rate-Hike Cycle as Fed Nears Peak
Meanwhile, Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda spoke at his first news conference since taking the new role and suggested that the country’s easy monetary policy will continue.
Ueda said he agreed with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida that there’s no need to revise the central bank’s joint agreement with the government for now. The 2013 accord between the government and the central bank stated the BOJ will seek to hit its inflation target as early as possible.
In other markets, oil and the dollar were little changed. Gold fell traded near $2,000 an ounce. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index ticked up 0.2%.
Key events this week:
- US wholesale inventories, Monday
- New York Fed President John Williams takes part in discussion hosted by the Economics Review at New York University, Monday
- China PPI, CPI, Tuesday
- IMF world economic outlook, global financial stability reports, Tuesday
- Chicago Fed’s Austan Goolsbee, Minneapolis Fed’s Neel Kashkari and Philadelphia Fed’s Patrick Harker speak at separate events, Tuesday
- Canada rate decision, Wednesday
- US FOMC minutes, CPI, Wednesday
- Richmond Fed’s Thomas Barkin speaks, Wednesday
- China trade, Thursday
- US PPI, initial jobless claim, Thursday
- US retail sales, business inventories, industrial production, University of Michigan consumer sentiment, Friday
- Major US banks JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup report earnings, Friday
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
- S&P 500 futures little changed as of 7:08 a.m. New York time
- Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.2%
Currencies
- The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
- The euro was little changed at $1.0907
- The British pound rose 0.1% to $1.2434
- The Japanese yen fell 0.1% to 132.30 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
- Bitcoin rose 0.8% to $28,356.85
- Ether rose 0.3% to $1,862.28
Bonds
- The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined one basis point to 3.38%
Commodities
- West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.1% to $80.82 a barrel
- Gold futures fell 0.5% to $2,017.10 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Isabelle Lee, Katie Greifeld and Liz Capo McCormick.
(A previous version of the story corrected the price of gold.)
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.