Breakfast Bites - Wed May 3, 2023

Ayesha
May 3, 2023
2 min read

Rise and shine everyone

The big news today is the FOMC rate decision at 2pm ET, followed by the press conference at 2:30pm ET. Mayhem and I will be doing a brief Twitter spaces at 3:30pm to discuss the event. Please join in if you can, and bring your questions.

S&P futures up 0.1% in Wednesday morning trading after US equities came under pressure on Tuesday with the major indexes all down more than 1%. Regional bank stocks sold off sharply, while other cyclical pockets of the market lagged as well. Dollar index down 0.4% on broad-based weakness. Gold up 0.1%. Bitcoin futures little changed. WTI crude down 1.9% after losing nearly 5.5% on Tuesday.

Asia and Australia

Asian markets weaker overnight with Hong Kong down more than 1% and Australia and South Korea off nearly 1%, while China and Japan were closed for holidays.
China domestic tourism surges through first half of Golden Week
Mixed sell-side takeaways from Tuesday's 25 bp RBA rate increase, though most economists anticipate one more rate hike. Forward
Indian budget carrier Go First files for bankruptcy protection
U.S. to weigh rules for keeping AI safe from China, other competitors

Europe, Middle East, Africa

European markets seeing solid gains after deep losses on Tuesday.
Bonds finding support in Europe with benchmark yields in Eurozone and UK weaker after sharp drop late Tuesday amid renewed worries over US banking sector.
ECB rate hike on Thursday: Default option of 25bp likely to prevail as data fail to meet standard for 50bp hike
March Eurozone unemployment rate fell slightly to 6.5% vs consensus of 6.6% and prior month outcome of 6.6%.

The Americas

White House open to framing debt ceiling deal in a way that could allow both parties to claim victory. House Democrats prepping a "discharge petition" to help bring bipartisan debt-ceiling legislation directly to the floor
AMD guides Q2 below the Street but highlights expectations for 2H growth as PC and server markets improve
Starbucks earnings beat as China comps turn positive, notes NA comp trends normalizing
Ford posts better Q1 earnings, says it has a ways to go before making money on EVs

Calendars

(news taken from Reuters, FT, Bloomberg; Calendar from Trading Economics)