US market down on concerns about more interest rate hikes
US equities sink on Wednesday after previous rally, followed by Fed’s officials claiming concerns with inflation control and more interest rate rises as a controlling tool. The Dow Jones traded lower 0.61% to 33,949, the S&P Index lost 1.1% to 4117, and the Nasdaq ended down 1.7% to 11,910. Treasury yields did not change much from yesterday, with the yield on the 2-year note flat at 4.43% and the yield on the 10-year note decreasing 5 bps to 3.59%. US Dollar weakened with DXY down 0.5% to 102.8. Focus of investors is still on earnings results of major companies.
Military actions continue in Ukraine, Donetsk are as main hotspot. The UK announced new sanctions against Russian 8 individuals and 1 entity connected to financial network. Meanwhile the UK assured Ukranian president Zelenskiy to speed up the process of tanks delivery. On the Russian stock markets IMOEX ended Monday 0.7% lower at 2,251 level, while the RTSI slumped down 2.25% to 981 points. Today’s morning showed mixed dynamic: IMOEX bounced back 0.2% to 2,256, while RTSI continued decline with 0.6% down to 975 level. On the bond space RGBITR (gov bonds) and RUCBITR (corp bonds) slightly decreased on Wednesday and keep on declining today, with combined dynamics of -0.15% to 613.4 and -0.03% to 499.3, correspondingly, with 10y benchmark yield at 10.39% (+2bps vs yesterday).
European markets traded higher today while investors focused on quarterly corporative earnings season in Eurozone. The DAX index in Germany traded 1.2% higher at 15,598 levels, the CAC 40 in France added this morning 1.2% to 7,205 points while the FTSE 100 in the U.K. climbed 0.73% at 7,941. German consumer prices, harmonized to compare with other European Union countries, rose by a less-than-anticipated 9.2% on the year in January and by 0.5% on the month, according to preliminary data Thursday.
Analysts had expected this release to grow by 10.0% on an annual basis and increase by 1.2% on the previous month.
SSA opens flat to firm as investors look ahead to next week’s U.S. inflation data. U.S. treasury yields pulled back on Wednesday after federal reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s latest comments. The 10-year Treasury yield was trading at 3.623% down by 5bps. NIGERIA (+0.275) and ANGOLA (+0.25) leads the uptick at the open while GHANA (+0.07) seems a little unchanged.
The NTB secondary market closed on a flat note with average yields remaining unchanged across the curve. Average yields across the short, medium & long ends remained unchanged across the curve.
In the OMO secondary market, average yields closed on a flat note across the curve. Average yields remained unchanged.
The FGN bonds secondary market closed on a positive note with average yields across the curve dropped by 1bps. Average yields on the short, medium & long ends dropped by 1bps, 2bps & 1bps respectively. The Mar 2027 bond was the best performer and the Feb 2028 bond was the worst performer.
**The Primary Market Auction held on Wednesday and offered a total of N217 billion across three tenors. Stop rates: 91days- Sold N4.52bn @ 0.10%, 182days- Sold N1.31bn @ 0.30% & 364days- Sold N411.23bn @ 2.24%.