Breakfast Bites - Thu Mar 23, 2023

Rise and shine everyone

The big news from yesterday was obviously the Fed raising by 25bps and keeping the terminal rate unchanged for this year, at 5.1%. More than the Summary of Economic Projections it would seem that everyone was more fixated on whether we have a banking contagion on our hands or not. The Fed Chair assured us that we did not. But, he did warn of tightening credit conditions that would have the same effect of rate hikes.

The market sold off hard into the close but, we seem to have quite a bid in futures this morning. Gold caught a bid yesterday and continues to inch up this morning. The USD Index is still under pressure and WTI Crude seems to be holding well around the $70 mark. BTC is at $27,714.

Asia and Australia

• Asian equities mixed Thursday. Tencent led to rally in Hang Seng after beating sales forecasts on ad revenue. Mainland China stocks also ended higher, Japan and Australia both ended lower weighed down by financials and banks, Taiwan and South Korea both rose, Southeast Asia mixed, India trading flat

• Taiwan's central bank raised its key interest rate by 12.5 bps to 1.875% for the fifth consecutive quarter to fight inflation. Hong Kong and Philippines also raised their benchmark rates, both by 25bps each.

• Tesla started a China price war that may destroy some carmakers

• China Evergrande offers bond and equity swaps in debt restructuring

• Tesla started a China price war that may destroy some carmakers

Europe, Middle East, Africa

• European markets remain slightly bid this morning.

• The Swiss National Bank raised rates by 50bps to 1.5% despite the recent turmoil in Credit Suisse.

• Norway's central bank raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points (bps) to 3% today to rein in inflation and said it would likely raise it again in May and also after that to hit 3.5% this summer.

• The Bank of England is expected to resume rate hikes today by 25bps, after inflation reaccelerated.

• Delegates say OPEC+ likely to stick to 2M bpd of production cuts until end of 2023

The Americas

• Yellen says US not considering blanket insurance for bank deposits. This is contrast to what Powell said yesterday that all deposits are secure.

• Coinbase Global receive a Wells Notice from the SEC yesterday. This is a letter informing them of enforcement actions. This comes after the news that the CEO Brian Armstrong was selling shares on Monday and Cathie Wood was selling shares on Tuesday.

• DWAC fires CEO Patrick Orlando

• Heisenberg warns of new short report. Name yet to be revealed.

Calendars