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Macro Roundup (Sep 29)
2022-9-29
This is a roundup of global macroeconomic news last night and what is expected today.

After tumbling earlier, sterling rallied against the dollar on Wednesday following the Bank of England’s (BOE) purchase of UK government bonds, letting some air out of the greenback’s progress broadly after it had touched a fresh 20-year high.

The BoE said it received 2.587 billion pounds’ ($2.78 billion) worth of offers in its first bond buyback operation aimed at stabilizing the market, and had accepted only 1.025 billion pounds’ worth. The central bank had committed to buying as many long-dated government bonds, know as gilts, as needed between Wednesday and Oct. 14.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a group of major currencies, was last at 112.660 after hitting a fresh 20-year high of 114.78.

While the dollar initially had broad-based gains, the greenback eased sharply as the U.S. trading session progressed, with the euro last up 1.52% at $0.9739 after falling as low as $0.95355 .

The dollar was last down 0.61% against Japan’s yen at 143.955 after touching a high of 144.860.

Stock futures inched lower in overnight trading Wednesday after the Dow Jones Industrial Average staged a comeback off its lowest level for the year.

Futures tied to the Dow Jones slipped 49 points, or 0.16%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures shed 0.19% and 0.26%, respectively.

The overnight moves came following a broad rally for stocks as the Bank of England said it would purchase bonds in an effort to help steady its financial markets and the cratering British pound. Sterling has stooped to record lows against the U.S. dollar in recent days.

During regular trading on Wednesday, the Dow gained 548.75 points, or 1.88%, to 29,683.74, while the S&P 500 rose 1.97% to 3,719.04, after hitting a new bear market low on Tuesday. Both indexes snapped a six-day losing streak. The Nasdaq Composite was up 2.05%, closing at 11,051.64.

Oil prices rose on Wednesday following unexpected drawdowns in U.S. crude and fuel stocks, outweighing downward pressure from the continued strength in the U.S. dollar.

Brent crude futures added 3.5% to end the day at $89.32, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures settled 4.65% higher at $82.15 per barrel.

U.S. crude stocks fell by 215,000 barrels in the most recent week, while gasoline and distillate inventories declined by 2.4 million and 2.9 million barrels respectively, as refining activity declined following several outages.

Gold rose about 2% on Wednesday as a retreat in the dollar rekindled some of its safe-haven appeal, although prospects of sharp rate hikes kept the non-yielding precious metal near a two-and-a-half-year trough.

Spot gold climbed 2% to $1,660.62 per ounce, to recoup some losses from a slide to its lowest since April 2020 earlier in the day.

U.S. gold futures settled 2.1% higher at $1,670.00.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 provisionally ended up 0.3% after a choppy afternoon, having recouped earlier losses of almost 2%. Banks fell 2.2% to lead losses and insurance stocks fell 1.6%, while health care stocks added 1.8%.

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