Bank of England and Swiss National Bank to meet today - 22.6.2023

On Wednesday, the US dollar index fell and won back all the increase of the previous three days. US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell expressed his opinion about the need to maintain a tight monetary policy, but he did not comment on a possible increase in the Fed's rate at a meeting on July 26. This disappointed investors a little. Moreover, earlier Atlanta Federal Reserve President Raphael Bostic said that, in his opinion, it makes sense to keep the current Fed rate of 5.25% until the end of this year. According to the CME FedWatch Tool, the probability of the Fed rate hike on July 26 by +0.25% has so far decreased slightly - to 74.4% from 76.9% a day earlier.

The next meeting of the Bank of England (BoE) will take place today. It is expected to increase its rate (4.5%) for the 13th time in a row by 0.25% or immediately by 0.5%. British inflation for May yesterday amounted to +8.7% y / y and did not change compared to April. The next meeting of the Swiss National Bank has already passed. He raised the rate to 1.75% from 1.5% as expected. The strengthening of the Swiss franc was insignificant.

Bitcoin quotes are now exceeding the psychological level of $30,000. As we noted in yesterday's review, the main positive was the message that the new EDX Markets crypto exchange was supported by several large financial companies at once: Fidelity Digital Assets, Citadel Securities, and Charles Schwab Corp. Recall that earlier investment companies Invesco and BlackRock announced plans to create their own crypto funds: bitcoin-ETF and bitcoin trust, respectively. Wisdom Tree is also planning to register its own crypto fund.

Yesterday, US stock indices continued to decline for the 3rd day in a row. US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell confirmed that the goal of the current tightening of monetary policy is to bring inflation down to 2% y/y. In May, it amounted to 4% y/y. Investors believe that the Fed's rate of 5.25%, which is above inflation, will either remain for a long time or will be further increased. High rates in theory support the exchange rate and negatively affect the stock market. The postal company FedEx Corporation reported a decline in profits and its shares fell 2.5%. Shares of United Parcel Service Inc fell 2%. The correction of quotes of the previous growth leaders Tesla (-5.5%), Nvidia (-1.7%), Microsoft Corp (-1.3%) continued. Note that Barclays lowered the upside potential of Tesla shares. Since the beginning of the year, they have risen in price by more than 2.5 times. Today in the US, speeches by representatives of the Fed will continue, and economic data will also be published: Initial Jobless Claims for the week and United States Existing Home Sales (forecast - negative) for May.

On Wednesday, oil quotes rose. This happened against the backdrop of a report by the independent American Petroleum Institute about a reduction in inventories for the week (U.S. API Weekly Crude Oil Stock) by 1.246 million barrels. Today, official data on US oil reserves from the U.S. will be released. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Natural gas quotes in Europe on ICE Dutch TTF stabilized around $420 per 1,000 cubic meters. American gas quotes on Henry Hub rose to $2.67 mmBtu. Recall that in August 2022 they reached $10.

Copper updated the maximum since the beginning of May. The rate cut by the Central Bank of China can support demand by stimulating the Chinese industry.