As of Thu, Apr 4, Singapore Time zone UTC +8
Dollar Index -0.33%, $97.04
USDJPY, +0.06%, $111.39
EURUSD, +0.36%, $1.1244
GBPUSD, +0.37%, $1.3176
USDCAD, +0.07%, $1.3347
AUDUSD, +0.62%, $0.7117
NZDUSD, +0.47%, $0.6789
U.S. Treasuries closed on a lower note, pushing yields higher in a curve-steepening trade. The 2-yr yield increased one basis point to 2.32%, and the 10-yr yield increased four basis points to 2.52%. The U.S. Dollar Index declined 0.33% to 97.11. WTI crude lost 0.3% to $62.42/bbl.
The Caixin China services purchasing managers index (private indicator of China’s service sector rose to a 14-month high in March) rose to 54.4 last month from February’s 51.1, which was a four-month low, Caixin Media Co. and research firm Markit said in a release on Wednesday.
In Brexit, Parliament has approved a bill that effectively rules out a no-deal Brexit by forcing the government to seek an extension from the EU if it cannot pass a divorce plan by April 12. The passage of the bill will enrage hardline Brexiteers in the Conservative Party, and sets Britain on course for a long Brexit extension if May cannot salvage her Withdrawal Agreement in the coming days. By a single vote (313 vs 312), Parliament approved the bill.
S&P500, +0.21%, 2,873.40
Nasdaq, +0.60%, 7,544.97
Nikkei Futures, +1.13%, 21,713.0
The S&P 500 advanced as much as 0.6% on Wednesday amid optimism about a U.S.-China trade deal. Market participants responded favorably to a Financial Times report indicating the U.S. and China were nearing a final trade deal, although issues pertaining to enforcement mechanisms and forced technology transfers still need to be ironed out. Trade talks between high-ranking U.S. and Chinese officials resumed in Washington yesterday.
The benchmark index fell into negative territory in afternoon action, however, succumbing to some selling interest after coming within 50 points of its all-time high. The S&P 500 managed to finish higher by 0.21%.
The S&P 500 materials (+1.3%), information technology (+0.8%), and consumer discretionary (+0.7%) sectors outperformed the broader market. Conversely, the energy (-1.0%), consumer staples (-0.6%), and industrial (-0.3%) sectors underperformed.
Semiconductor stocks were strong all day following a Digitimes report suggesting Taiwan Semi (TSM 41.79, +0.52, +1.3%), which is the largest contract semiconductor foundry, is seeing a rebound in chip orders. Optimism that better economic activity could be on the horizon, and that a trade deal could be worked out soon, also fueled buying interest in this growth-oriented space that has leading-indicator status. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD 29.02, +2.27, +8.5%) and Intel (INTC 55.48, +1.12, +2.1%) provided the group with some influential support after both were initiated with a Buy rating at Nomura/Instinet. AMD also benefited from Digitimes suggesting it will see a significant increase in sales in the second half of the year while Intel got an added boost from the news that it named a new CFO.
Shares of Facebook (FB 173.54, -0.66), on the other hand, came under pressure following a Bloomberg report regarding a privacy slip-up. The report indicated a cyber security firm discovered Facebook user information was “inadvertently posted publicly on Amazon.com Inc.’s cloud computing servers” in plain sight. FB shares lost 0.4% after being up as much as 2.2% prior to the report.