Global Market Trends (18th Jan., 2022)

US market, the equity and bond market was on pause temporarily on Monday due to the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday, though stock futures and commodity futures traded partially. The previous week Friday trading was however volatile ending in a mixed session. The market was expectant of the earning reports of banks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell over 200 points or 0.5% led by weakness in shares of JPMorgan which suffered the worst percentage drop since June 2020, as tracked by Dow Jones Market Data Group. 

While the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite rose over 0.6% and 0.05%, respectively, recovering steep losses. 

JP Morgan, CEO Jamie Dimon believes the economy is rebounding and gave a positive assessment of the near future. He held the view that there will be there’ll be more than 4 [rate hikes], it could be 6 or 7" he said during the bank's earnings call on Friday. 

Commodity, Energy stocks rose as oil tacked on 6.24% for the week closing at $83.82. There is an ongoing middle east crisis that may stoke an increase in prices due to Yemen's Houthi group attacking the United Arab Emirates, escalating hostilities between the Iran-aligned group and a Saudi Arabian-led coalition.

The retail market, were in focus as consumers pulled back spending in December with a decline of nearly 2% on the headline number. Excluding the automotive component, spending fell 2.3% compared to a 0.3% pop the previous month.

Asia Market, in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 lost 1.3%, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong slipped 0.2% and China's Shanghai Composite index lost 0.9%.

China reported its global trade surplus surged nearly 30% in 2021 to $676.4 billion. The trade surplus in December swelled 20.8% over a year earlier to a monthly record of $94.4 billion, customs data showed Friday. The surplus with the United States rose 25.1% in 2021 over a year earlier to $396.6 billion

SPOT MARKET POSITION BY THE HOUR AS OF GMT 08:35  01-18-22

European Market, In Europe the market is currently bearish across the board as the market monitors earning reports from the US market, London's FTSE slipped 0.39% to 7,581.78, Germany's DAX was off 0.75% to 15,814.05 and France's CAC declined 1.16% to 7,117.84.

Asia Market, In Asia, the market currently is choppy with mixed investors' sentiments, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index slid by 0.27% to 28,257.25, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong also slip by 0.43% to 24,112.78, while China's Shanghai jumped by 0.86% to 3,569.91.