Wall Street ends higher on optimism ahead of key inflation report
US stocks finished sharply higher on Wednesday with the Nasdaq on a four-day winning streak. The Dow Jones rose 0.8% to 33,973 the S&P gained 1.3% to 3,970 and the Nasdaq increased 1.8% to 10,932. However, the caution prevailed ahead of today’s consumer price inflation report and Q4 season start on Friday. Dollar stabilized in early European trading with DXY edging higher to 102.93, not far off its seven-month low of 102.76 hit earlier in the session. Treasury yields were lower with the yield on 2-year note losing 4 bps to 4.22%, while the yields on the 10-year note and the 30-year bond declined 8bps to 3.54% and 3.66% respectively. Data wise, MBA Mortgage Application Index rose 1.2% last week, following the prior week’s drop of 10.3%. All eyes today are on Consumer Price Index release, which is forecasted to be flat month-over-month and up 6.5% year-over-year, while excluding food and energy, the core rate is expected to have increased 0.3% and 5.7% y/y.
With continuing military actions in Donetsk and Herson areas, Russian military this night has attacked utility infrastructure in Zaporozhye. Russia’s equity market on Wednesday continued its rally, started this week: IMOEX increased 1.27% to 2186.98 and RTSI gained 2.88%, exceeding 1000 first time since middle of December with the closing price of 1002.62, followed by ruble strengthened 2.60% on the news of restarting FX operations on Yuan under fiscal rule starting Jan 13th. Russian bond yields have slightly increased, with RGBITR (gov bonds) and RUCBITR (corp bonds) indexes shown downward dynamic at 0.13% and 0.06%, correspondingly.
European markets open higher as investors focusing on quarterly earnings season and US CPI release later in the session. On the stock markets the DAX index in Germany traded 0.57% higher at 15,031 level, the FTSE 100 in the U.K. added 0.62% to 7,772 points while the CAC 40 in France climbed 0.63% to 6,967 level. The indexes had performed more than 2% from the new year on positive earning expectation from retail sector.
SSA continues the strong showing heading into the US CPI release later in the session. Oilers maintain their outperformance following Brent’s 3.2% uptick on Wednesday; ANGOL (+.75) and NGERIA (+1.00) seeing a sustained bid with duration getting the most demand. GHANA (+.125) joins in on the act albeit on a comparatively muted note.
The NTB secondary market closed on a flat note with average yields remaining unchanged across the curve. This was mainly due to the PMA that held Wednesday. Market was awaiting the outcome of the auction leaving the market very quiet. In the OMO secondary market, average yields also closed flat across the curve with the short, medium & long ends remaining unchanged.
PMA Result:
91-days: N3.15bn sold @ 2.00%
182-days: N1.49bn sold @ 4.33%
364-days: N52.29bn sold @ 7.30%
The FGN bonds secondary market closed on a mildly positive note with average yields across the curve dropping by 5bps. Average yields on the short & medium tenors dropped by 1bps & 15bps respectively however, the long end remained unchanged. The Feb 2028 bond was the best performer while the Jan 2026 was the worst performer.