STATE OF THE MARKETS

Stocks mixed amid hawkish Fed’s minutes. US stocks closed mixed on Wednesday after minutes showed a more hawkish Feds last month. S&P (+0.09%) and Russell (+0.14%) climbed higher while Dow (-0.16%) and Nasdaq (-0.11%) fell lower as the Dollar index slipped further to the 95.80 barrier. The 10Y benchmark was little changed at 2.04%.

In the commodities market, crude tumbled to $88.90/bl after EIA reports showed an increase of more than 1M inventories while gold was fixed above $1,869.40/oz as uncertainties remain over Russia-Ukraine conflict. Elsewhere, profit taking from speculators forced iron ore to pull back deeper to $144.90/tn.

In the FX space, long term investors turned bearish as Swiss flipped to demand while Yen flipped to offer. However, short and medium term traders seemed bullish as Aussie and Kiwi retain the lead in demand territories.

On Thursday, markets look for earnings reports from Walmart (WMT), Southern (SO), Baxter (BAX), Digital Realty (DLR), Palantir Tech (PLTR), Roku (ROKU), Veritas (VTR) and Dropbox (DBX) as well as the latest figures on US unemployment claims and the health of the housing markets.

OUR PICK – No New Pick

No new pick on high volatility and uncertainty. Given high volatility and uncertainties, plus three consecutives losses in EUR/JPY, GBP/USD and AUD/USD, we decided to stay on the sideline for now.