Overnight, the US equity markets closed higher after a modest reversal of a four-day sell-off from last week. However, the dollar fell and bond yields jumped in response to an unexpected policy pivot from the Bank of Japan (BOJ). All three major US indices rebounded from an early dip, while the rising yen sent the USD/JPY lower, and 10-year US Treasury yields reached their highest level this month in reaction to the Japanese central bank’s surprise move to allow long-term interest rates to rise.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 92.2 points, or 0.28%, to 32,849.74, the S&P 500 gained 3.96 points, or 0.10%, to 3,821.62, and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.08 points, or 0.01%, to 10,547.11. The BOJ’s surprise policy review sent the USD/JPY to a four-month low, and the dollar, in turn, fell sharply against other major currencies. The Dollar Index fell 0.69%, with the EUR/USD up 0.17% to 1.0623, and the GBP/USD last trading at 1.2178, up 0.26% on the day.
Crude oil prices rose higher in New York overnight, but see-sawed during the trading session as the dollar’s weakness was curbed by fears that a brewing storm could disrupt Americans’ travel plans. The storm is expected to bring blizzard conditions on Thursday and Friday, producing heavy snow and rain. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, WTI crude futures settled up 90 cents at $75.99 a barrel, while on London’s Intercontinental Exchange, Brent added 19 cents to settle at $79.99 a barrel.
Gold breached the $1,800 level, climbing more than 1% to its highest levels in a week on the back of a sliding dollar. Spot gold rose 1.6% to $1,815.10/oz, while COMEX gold futures settled up 1.5% at $1,825.40/oz. Spot silver also rose 4.6% to $24.01/oz, posting its biggest intraday gain since early November.
In the cryptocurrency market, bitcoin inched up 0.25% over the past 24 hours and was trading at $16,785, while ether declined 2.07% to $1,207 before recovering to $1,217 this morning in Asia. Dogecoin declined 4.95% to $0.07399, down by 16.44% over the last seven days, while litecoin gained 2.68% to $64.94 after falling by 13.79% over the last seven days. Litecoin’s hash rate rose by about 9% in seven days and is currently trading at $65.77. BNB rose to $251.40 following news that bankrupt crypto lender Voyager has accepted a bid by Binance.US for assets valued at $1.022 billion.
That concludes the financial markets update for today. Thank you for joining us, and we’ll see you again tomorrow.
