Category Archives: Weekly Outlook

Markets are risk-off due to fear of contagion from First Republic Bank’s imminent collapse Earnings season is ramping up, with results have been much better than market’s expectations. Tech stocks are leading with a 0.64% increase in the Nasdaq on Wednesday. Meta shares shot up 12% after the company posted an earnings beat of $2.20Continue Reading

The economic resilience of the world’s second-largest economy will be headwind for oil prices China’s Q1 GDP grew by 4.5%, exceeding expectations of a 4.0% expansion and marking the fastest pace of growth since Q1 2022. On a quarter-by-quarter basis, the GDP grew by 2.2% in Q1, compared to a revised 0.6% rise in theContinue Reading

USD remains elevated even as the economy shows signs of weakening The U.S dollar saw a bounce on Monday after a sustained dip on the back of signs of easing inflation and the recent bank stress. Resilient retails sales, optimistic earnings in Wall Street, and hike-signalling from the Fed have caused the dollar to surgeContinue Reading

Alibaba Cloud has unveiled its AI chatbot, Tongyi Qianwen The Chinese tech giant, Alibaba Cloud, unveiled an AI-driven chatbot  Tongyi Qianwen that will gradually become available across all Alibaba products, from enterprise communication to e-commerce, in the coming period. The chatbot will possess Chinese and English language capabilities and will be initially deployed on DingTalkContinue Reading

On Wednesday, 12 April, the U.S. CPI data was released, showing that March’s headline inflation in the U.S. slowed more than anticipated, with the year-on-year number showing a drop from 6.0% in February to 5.0% in March; lower than the expected 5.2%. The monthly rate decreased to 0.1% from 0.4%, which was lower than theContinue Reading

Asian markets were mixed as investors digested a US labour report showing a drop in job openings to their lowest level in almost two years in February. New Zealand’s central bank increased its benchmark cash rate by 50 basis points to 5.25%, causing the New Zealand dollar to strengthen by almost 0.9%. Meanwhile, Japan’s NikkeiContinue Reading

On Wednesday, 8 March, the U.S. ADP Nonfarm Employment Change data for February was released, coming in at a lower-than-expected 145,000 against the expected 200,000 and down from January’s figure of an upwardly-revised 261,000. This is the latest in a string of cooling data showing that the Fed’s aggressive tightening regime might finally be takingContinue Reading

Oil prices surged at the beginning of the week after OPEC+ unexpectedly announced crude output cuts that could tighten the market, causing inflationary concerns for the global economy. The cuts, which will exceed 1 million barrels a day, were not expected by traders who anticipated output to remain steady. Goldman Sachs raised price forecasts forContinue Reading

Has the banking crisis abated? Equity investors seem to think so, with the Nasdaq surging close to 2% on Wednesday as the markets assess a successful containment of the banking crisis caused by the failure of regional banks and one Credit Suisse. This puts the tech-heavy index technically in bull market territory, closing more thanContinue Reading

Investors hoping for a pause in rate hikes were disappointed as the U.S. Federal Reserve pushed ahead with a quarter-point hike at its interest rate decision on Wednesday. While way lower than 2022’s mega-hikes of 50 to 75 bps and in line with economist expectations, March’s 25-point hike is a calculated risk amid what isContinue Reading