Chinese stocks lead markets higher - 17.4.2023

The Dollar strengthening is intact currently. The live dollar index data show the ICE US Dollar index, a measure of the dollar’s strength against a basket of six rival currencies, rose 0.9% Friday.

Both EUR/USD and GBP/USD reversed their climbing on Friday while the federal statistical office Destatis reported German Wholesale Price Index increase slowed to 2% over year in March from 8.9% in February. Euro and Pound are lower against the Dollar currently. USD/JPY reversed its retreating while AUD/USD reversed its climbing Friday with the yen lower against the Greenback currently and the Australian dollar higher.

US stocks indexes futures are higher currently after closing lower Friday following Census Bureau data showing US retails sales fell by a surprisingly big 1 per cent in March. The three main US stock benchmarks recorded daily losses in the range from 0.2% to 0.4% on Thursday.

Futures on European stock indexes are up today after closing higher on Friday led by banking shares. Asian stock indexes futures are mostly rising today with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index leading gains as the People’s Bank of China maintained medium-term lending rates at 2.75% as it continued providing more liquidity.

Brent is edging lower currently. Oil prices ended higher on Friday last week as the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned that deep output cuts announced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other major producers led by Russia - a group known as OPEC+, could exacerbate the global oil supply deficit. The US oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) added 0.4% but are lower currently. Brent crude edged up 0.3% to $86.31 a barrel on Friday. Both benchmarks added more than 1% last week after, posting fourth consecutive week of gains.