The Fed remains cautious
One other comment stood out. Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic was on CNBC on Wednesday, and for him, rates should likely not be reduced until the fourth quarter of this year.
European markets
European markets closed higher on Wednesday, shaking off some of the negative sentiment seen at the start of the new quarter. In the US, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite posted modest gains. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei outperformed the region. Markets in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan were closed for a public holiday.
US banks
Several US central bankers were taking part in conferences and interviews on Wednesday, and all expressed caution on when the Fed should start cutting rates. In a speech to the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Jerome Powell noted that "recent readings on both job gains and inflation have come in higher than expected," and a rate cut could only happen with "greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably down" towards the bank's target of 2%.
The Federal Reserve
One other comment stood out. Atlanta Federal Reserve (Fed) President Raphael Bostic was on CNBC on Wednesday, and for him, rates should likely not be reduced until the fourth quarter of this year and would only go for one 25 basis-point cut in 2024, well below the three or more cuts most of his colleagues anticipate. These comments helped gold hit fresh highs, rising to $2,300.
The US dollar
US private businesses hired 184,000 workers in March, according to the Automatic Data Processing (ADP). February data was upwardly revised to 155K. It is the biggest increase in eight months. The USD remained strong at the time of the release of the ADP survey but dipped a little later when ISM services PMI came in at 51.4 in March, its weakest growth in three months, missing forecasts.
Jobless claims
On Thursday, the market awaits initial jobless claims: economists anticipate 214,000 new claimants from last week, and the trade deficit should remain broadly unchanged at $-67.3 billion.
Oil
As expected, OPEC+ ministers kept their oil supply policy in place. They also asked some members of the organisation to comply with output cuts. The oil rally continued yesterday. WTI hit $85.78, and Brent rose to $89.75. US crude stocks rose unexpectedly last week, up by 3.2 million barrels. Oil analysts had anticipated a 1.5 million-barrel drop. An increase is partly due to refinery issues. US refiners have already reported several major outages this year. Last week, refiners' utilisation rates fell 0.1 percentage points to 88.6%. Gasoline stocks fell by 4.3 million barrels, and distillate stockpiles fell by 1.3 million barrels.
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