Breakfast Bites - Thu Jun 22, 2023

Rise and shine everyone.

The Bank of England just announced their rate decision. In a surprise move, they raised rates by 50 bps, after a 7-2 vote.

This was a watched meeting after Norway announced a surprise 50 bps rate hike earlier in the day and the Swiss National Bank also hiked by 25 bps.

The other interesting Central Bank meeting was Turkey where we had a massive range of rate expectations from various analysts. They surprised with a lower than expected hike of 6.5% increasing rates to 15%. The consensus was 20%.

In other news, there was nothing groundbreaking from Chair Powell yesterday but, he did reiterate that policymakers expected further rate hikes by year-end.

US Futures are trading lower this morning, alongside Gold and Oil. Bitcoin still remains green and stable at $30,000. The Yield Curve is trading at -0.99% briefly crossing -1% earlier today. The USD Index has pulled back slightly below $102.

Fed Chair Powell is back before congress today starting 10am ET.

Asia and Australia

Asian equities ended mostly lower Thursday in thin trade.
Bank Indonesia (BI) kept its 7D reverse repo rate unchanged at 5.75% for fifth consecutive month.
China's Economic Daily commented recent yuan depreciation, attributing to "result of market mechanism" and said it is highly probable yuan will appreciate against dollar in H2.
China has begun a fresh round of nationwide inspections to assess the size of local government debt, coming as a sign that authorities are preparing to take concrete steps to tackle a key financial risk.
BOJ's Noguchi says guidance tweak still indicates strong commitment to easing.
Record Number of European Firms Report Declining China Revenue in 2022.

Europe, Middle East, Africa

European equity markets softer, with STOXX 600 down for fourth session to lowest level in nearly three months. The FTSE didn’t like the rate decision either.
ECB Executive Board member Schnabel, a known hawk, said German inflation is being driven by profits and wages.
Ukraine energy minister Galushchenko warned that Russia could shut one of the last arteries carrying gas to Europe by the end of next year.
UK PM Sunak's hope for a pre-election tax cut is fading after national debt breached 100% of GDP for the first time since 1961 in data published Wednesday.

The Americas

Total US short interest surpasses $1T even as paper losses on positions tops $100B, according to Bloomberg.
Number of active home listings hit record low in May, according to Redfin
Boeing is lower this morning after falling -3.4% due to talks about worker strikes
Darden reports beat on EPS and Revenues in-line. Report Q4 EPS $2.58 vs FactSet $2.54. Revenue $2.77B vs FactSet $2.77B. Increases quarterly dividend by 8.3% to $1.31 from $1.21. Announces retirement of Chairman.
Tesla downgraded to equal-weight from overweight at Morgan Stanley
Accenture reports a double beat. Reports Q3 EPS $3.19 ex-items vs FactSet $3.01. Revenue $16.56B vs FactSet $16.49B.