Meta Platforms quarterly earnings release today - 26.4.2023

On Tuesday, the US dollar index rose slightly. Overall, it has been in a downtrend since the beginning of March and has declined by about 4% in that time. Yesterday, investors reacted positively to the increase in New Home Sales in March (+9.6% m/m). The dollar is supported by expectations of the growth of the US Federal Reserve rate at the meeting on May 3 to 5.25% from the current level of 5%. According to CME FedWatch, there is now an 84% chance of this happening. The GfK Germany Consumer Climate for May was published this morning. He turned out better than expected. Earlier, a member of the Board of Directors of the European Central Bank Isabel Schnabel expressed the opinion that the rate could be increased by 0.5% - from 3.5% to 4%. All this contributed to the strengthening of the euro. This morning, New Zealand's March trade deficit widened. In Australia, inflation in the 1st quarter (+7% y/y) was higher than expected. This slightly weakened the Australian and New Zealand dollars. Sveriges Riksbank raised the rate to 3.5% from 3%, as expected. Despite this, the Swedish krona is weakening as negative economic data came out in Sweden this week. Durable Goods Orders and Goods Trade Balance for March will be published in the US today.

Bitcoin quotes stopped falling yesterday. They formed a trading range with approximate borders of $30500-26800 and have been in it for 5 weeks. The U.S. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), French Financial Markets Authority (AMF), and other official organizations from different countries are studying the regulation of the crypto market. Accordingly, quotes fluctuate depending on emerging comments and news. A positive for the crypto market may be the plans of the Visa payment system to develop a Stablecoin payment service.

Yesterday, US stock indices dropped significantly. A negative factor was the decrease in the United States Conference Board (CB) Consumer Confidence Index in April to 101.3 points. This is worse than expected. Investors fear a renewed banking crisis in the US. Reporting First Republic Bank was weak and its shares collapsed by almost 50% on the day. Since the beginning of March, they have fallen 15 times. Against this backdrop, the S&P Regional Banking ETF dropped 4.2% yesterday. Reporting United Parcel Service was also worse than expected. This caused the quotes of this company to fall by 10%. Dow Jones Transport Average index due to this fell by 3.6%. Shares of Microsoft and Alphabet fell about 2% pending the release of their financial results. General Motors lowered its financial forecast. Its quotes fell by 4%. Today, quarterly reports from Meta Platforms (Facebook), Boeing, American Tower, CME Group and other corporations will be released in the US.

On Tuesday, oil quotes fell. Nevertheless, Brent kept the psychological support level of $80 per barrel. Investors do not yet believe that OPEC+ will implement a second, real cut in oil production from May 1. It was announced in early April. Recall that the planned volume of production cuts should amount to an additional 1.66 million bpd. Since November 2022, OPEC+ has already reduced production by 2 million bpd. This morning, oil is a little more expensive. Quotations are supported by the message of the American Petroleum Institute on the reduction of oil reserves in the US for the week by 6.08 million barrels.

Natural gas in Europe on ICE Dutch TTF continues to trade in the range of $420-580 per 1000 cubic meters. Now it has approached the lower limit and costs about $440 per thousand cubic meters. American gas quotes on Henry Hub failed to break down the psychological level of $2. Now they are correcting up and are about $2.38 mmBtu.