Ukraine’s military said that Kyiv is continuing to hold off attacks by Russia on Bakhmut. The safe haven US dollar index fell this morning.
Saudi Arabia’s Riyad Bank PMI rose to 59.8 in February, from 58.2 a month ago, lending some support to the SAR/USD forex pair.
South Korea’s consumer price index rose 4.8% year-over-year in February, compared to January’s reading of 5.2%, which sent the KRW/USD pair slightly higher in forex trading this morning.
Australia’s Melbourne Institute’s Monthly Inflation Gauge rose 0.4% in February, compared to a rise of 0.9% in the prior month, exerting slight pressure on the AUD/USD forex pair.
Sri Lanka’s central bank hiked its key interest rate by 100 bps to 15.5%. Despite this, the LKR/USD pair fell in forex trading this morning.
What’s happening: Shares of Citigroup rose on Friday, after the company announced layoff plans.
What happened: The banking giant initiated a round of job cuts that account for around 1% of its overall workforce.
Citigroup indicated that the planned job reductions are a part of its normal business planning.
Why it matters: Several US banks, including Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Credit Suisse, have announced job cuts amid uncertainty around the economy and a slowdown in deal-making activities.
Citigroup became the latest bank to join the layoff bandwagon, with the company planning on trimming several hundred jobs in its key investment banking unit and the US mortgage underwriting unit.
Citigroup reported investment banking revenues of $645 million for the fourth quarter, which represented a 58% year-over-year decline. Analysts warned of a further decline in investment banking revenues in the first quarter.
The bank’s mortgage unit has also been struggling due to lower mortgage demand spurred by the steep rise in mortgage rates after the Fed’s aggressive interest rate hiks.
The recent job cuts represent less than 1% of Citigroup’s 240,000 people workforce. The banks indicated that the layoffs are routine in nature and a part of its usual business planning.
How shares responded: Citigroup’s shares gained 1.9% to close at $52.35 on Friday. The stock has added around 8.6% over the prior six months.
What to watch: Investors will continue to monitor the overall economic environment and the Fed’s monetary policy. Markets will also keep an eye on the execution of the job reductions.
Context: European stocks closed higher on Friday, as investors digested recent economic reports.
Details: Economic data showed inflation across Europe coming in higher than projected. Although Eurozone’s headline inflation eased to 8.5% in February, from the previous month’s reading of 8.6%, this was still higher than markets expectations of 8.2%. Core inflation accelerated to 5.6% in February, from 5.3% in January.
Producer prices in the Eurozone fell 2.8% in January, better than market estimates of a 0.3% drop. Moreover, the S&P Global Eurozone services PMI improved to 52.7 in February, from January’s reading of 50.8.
European markets also received a boost from Atlanta Federal Reserve President Raphael Bostic’s comments to ease the US central bank’s pace of rate hikes to 25 bps. Market sentiment was also supported by recent data showing an acceleration in China’s service sector growth in February after the relaxation of the country’s strict covid-19 rules.
The STOXX Europe 600 Index rose 0.92% to close at 464.26 on Friday, with auto stocks adding around 3.5% and mining stocks gaining more than 2%. Volkswagen led the gains in auto stocks, with its stock surging more than 10% on Friday after the company issuing a strong sales forecast for 2023.
Oil and gas stocks bucked the trend, falling about 0.4%. For the week, the continent-wide STOXX 600 index added around 1.5%.
Germany’s DAX 40 jumped 1.64% to close at 15,578.39, while France’s CAC 40 gained 0.88% to 7,348.12 on Friday.
What are expectations: Investors await economic data on construction PMI and retail sales from the Eurozone today. The S&P Global construction PMI, which improved to 46.1 in January, is expected to rise further to 48.2 in February. Analysts expect retail sales growth of 1.3% in January, following a 2.7% decline in the previous month.
Other Markets: US trading indices closed higher on Friday, with the Dow Jones index, S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 up by 1.17%, 1.61% and 2.04%, respectively.
Technical Levels | News Sentiment |
EUR/USD – 1.0643 and 1.0648 | Negative |
USD/CHF – 0.9353 and 0.9358 | Negative |
WTI Crude Oil – 79.02 and 79.12 | Negative |
FTSE 100 – 7943.02 and 7955.93 | Positive |
S&P 500 – 4040.63 and 4048.14 | Positive |
Futures at 0400 (GMT) | ||
EUR/USD (1.0648, 0.12%) | Dow ($33,439, 0.07%) | Brent ($85.22, -0.7%) |
GBP/USD (1.2046, 0.02%) | S&P500 ($4,058, 0.20%) | WTI ($79.09, -0.7%) |
USD/JPY (135.41, -0.33%) | Nasdaq ($12,358, 0.38%) | Gold ($1,861, 0.3%) |
France’s construction PMI and retail sales, Germany’s construction PMI and new passenger car registrations, Italy’s construction PMI, UK’s new car sales and construction PMI, Mexico’s car production, auto exports, and gross fixed investment, Brazil’s auto industry production, new vehicle sales and Central Bank of Brazil focus market readout, Russia’s total vehicle sales, Canada’s Ivey Purchasing Managers Index, US factory orders, as well as Spain’s consumer confidence indicator.