Market Update January 4, 2023 By Daniel Ang

We’ve got a jam-packed daily market update for you this Wednesday, January 4, 2023, so let’s get started.

Unfortunately, U.S. equities ended the first day of trading with losses as last year’s selling pressures spilled over into the new year. The S&P 500 dropped 0.4%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 0.8%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the session just below breakeven. The moves come after broad-based declines last Friday, marking the end of Wall Street’s worst year since the Global Financial Crisis in 2008.

In currency markets, the dollar jumped ahead of the Federal Reserve’s release of minutes from its December meeting. The Euro was dented by moderating inflation data, while AUD/USD and NZD/USD (which are sensitive to Chinese growth) were both down around 0.9%. EUR/USD fell 0.92% to 1.0567, while USD/JPY was up at 130.77 after earlier hitting a six-month low of 129.51 in early Asia trading.

Precious metals saw some action with gold prices hitting their highest levels in more than six months in Asia as benchmark US Treasury yields fell and market participants assessed the prospects for more Federal Reserve interest rate hikes. Gold was up 0.8% to $1,838.56/oz, while silver rose 0.3% to $24.07/oz and platinum jumped 1.5% to $1,085.50/oz.

In the world of crude oil, both WTI and Brent futures fell due to the strength of the dollar and concerns about demand in China. WTI fell 3.8% to trade just above $77 per barrel, while Brent lost 3% to trade around $83.32 per barrel.

On the crypto front, the market kicked off the new year in a positive mood with Solana’s SOL surging roughly 12% so far in 2023 and about 20% in the past 24 hours. Bitcoin and Ether have also held strong, despite being down 0.4% and 0.8% in the past 24 hours, respectively. Bitcoin has been hovering between $16,000 and $17,000 for 19 consecutive days after a tumultuous 2022 in which it lost 64% of its value.

This daily market update was brought to us by Daniel Ang, a career commodity trader with over 35 years of experience in the field. Daniel stumbled into the world of trading in 1985 when he accompanied a classmate to a job interview and ended up being accepted as a trainee. He went on to set up a new operation in New Zealand in 1987 and trade the Hang Seng Index futures, even managing to profit during the 1987 Black Monday market crash.

We hope you enjoyed this entertaining yet educational daily market update. As always, stay tuned for more updates and stay safe out there!