Tesla shares fall on delivery miss

APAC equity markets

Asia–Pacific (APAC) equity markets fell overnight in the wake of US indices performance on Tuesday. Dow Jones Industrial fell for a second day as economic data pushed Treasury yields higher. The probability of a Fed rate cut in June has decreased. They stand at around 63% at the moment.

The Federal Reserve

On Tuesday, Cleveland the Federal Reserve (Fed) Bank President Loretta Mester and San Francisco Fed Bank President Mary Daly, two Fed policymakers considered to have divergent monetary policy leanings, both believed that it would be "reasonable" to cut U.S. interest rates three times this year. More Fed bankers are due to speak today: Fed Chair Jerome Powell at a conference in Stanford, California. Also look for comments from Austan Goolsbee, Michael Barr, and Adriana Kugler.

The ADP employment

The US private sector is expected to have created 148,000 jobs last month, according to the Automatic Data Processing (ADP) employment change survey, compared to 140,000 in February. Any substantial beat or miss could impact the greenback, although it is far more susceptible to reacting to non-farm payrolls on Friday. According to early forecasts, the market sees 200,000 job creations for the month of March, after 275,000 in February. The unemployment rate is expected to remain at 3.9%.

The Caixin/S&P Global Services PMI

In China, service activity growth accelerated in March. The Caixin/S&P Global Services purchasing managers' index (PMI) edged up to 52.7 from 52.5 in February. Details of the survey show that the pace of new business expansion was the fastest since December last year. Underlying demand improved, business confidence rose, but employment levels shrank for a second successive month in March.

Tesla

Tesla shares dropped as Q1 deliveries missed expectations. The EV maker said it built 433,000 vehicles but delivered only 387,000. Tesla's shares fell about 5% after the update and have lost more than a third of their value this year.

The gold price

The gold price soared to an all-time high of $2,266 per ounce on Tuesday. Rising geopolitical uncertainties, especially following the recent Israeli attack on an Iranian embassy in Syria on April 1, have lifted demand for the safe-haven asset. Meanwhile, Brent and US crude traded higher after a Ukrainian drone struck one of Russia's major oil refineries.

Crude oil

On Tuesday evening, Application Programming Interface (API) data showed a 2.3-million-barrel fall in crude oil stocks. Gasoline inventories and distillate stock also fell by 1.5 million and 2.6 million barrels, respectively. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+) Joint Monitoring Ministerial Meeting is due to take place online on Wednesday, but the market doesn’t expect much from it. OPEC+ members met last month and decided to maintain the voluntary output cut in place.