Macro Scenes:
Wall Street higher, led by tech: Wall Street rebounded as the AI-powered rally returned, with Alphabet jumping 5% and AMD soring nearly 10% amid their respective AI achievements. The tech-heavy index, Nasdaq, rose more than 1% to a four-month high.
Yen strengthened following BOJ Ueda’s comments: The Japanese Yen surged after the BOJ governor Kazuo Ueda signalled that the bank could shift policy. Traders bid for a termination of its negative rates as soon as BOJ’s December meeting. USD/JPY plunged more than 2% to a four-month low.
US bond yields steady ahead of non-farm payroll: US government bond yields were flat ahead of the November non-farm payroll data. The US 10-year Treasury yield rose slightly as the weekly jobless claim was lower than expected.
Crude oil eased losses: Crude oil futures were slightly higher, and oil markets may have been oversold, while a softened USD buoyed commodity prices in general. However, Chinese trade balance data showed that the country’s domestic demands saw further weakness, with its November imports only rising 0.6% year on year. The data could cap oil’s rebound.
Gold extended gains: Gold futures rebounded slightly after a two-day slide after hitting a record high on Monday. The precious metal might maintain its upside momentum if Friday’s non-farm payroll data offered evidence for a slowdown labour market.
Ethereum hit a 19-month high: The second-largest token, Ethereum, rose to above 2,300, the highest since May 2022, amid the Crypto frenzy. However, Bitcoin’s rally took a breather, pulling back to just above 43,200 after topping 44,000 early this week.
Asian markets to open mixed: The ASX 200 futures fell 0.21%, the Hang Seng Index futures rose 0.27%, and Nikkei 225 futures fell 1.18%.
Chart of the Day:
WTI, daily – The chart indicates that WTI futures may have been oversold as RSI entered an oversold territory, which may lead to a near-term rebound. The potential immediate support can be found around 69, and the possible near-term resistance may be at 74.43, around the Fibonacci retracement of 38.20%.
Source: CMC Markets as of 8 December 2023
Company News:
Google (NDX: GOOGL) rose 5% after the company launched the large language model Gemini, which includes Gemini Ultra, Gemini Pro, and Gemini Nano. The company plans to enable its access to customers from 13 December, stepping up its competition with rivals like Microsoft and Meta.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NDX: AMD) surged 9% after the chip maker unveiled MI300 AI chips, competing with NVIDIA. CEO Lisa Su forecasted that the AI chip industry could reach over $400 billion in 2027. Meta, OpenAI, and Microsoft expressed interest in AMD’s new chips.
GameStop (NDX: GME) jumped 8% after it announced that the company would be allowed to use its cash to buy equities instead of short-term debts, and CEO Ryan Cohen is in charge of investment. The announcement came with its quarterly results, which showed that its sales revenue fell 9% year on year.
PayPal (NDX: PYPL) fell 1.7% after Amazon said it would stop Venmo payments from January.
Woodside Energy (ASX: WDS) and Santos (ASX: STO) are in talks on a potential merger, which would create a company with a market cap of nearly A$80 billion.
Today’s Agenda:
Japan’s Q3 GDP
China’s New Yuan Loan for November
US Non-farm Payroll for November
US UoM Consumer Sentiment for December