Russia’s fresh gas stop worsens Europe’s energy crisis

Asian Pacific markets fell sharply on Thursday amid growing signs of weakness in China’s manufacturing sector. The Shanghai Composite is down 0.03% at 3,201.23. Overall, the Singapore MSCI is up 0.35% at 289.70. Over in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index is down 1.39% at 19,549.00. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 is down 1.74% at 27,630.00, while the Topix index is down 1.30% at 1936.50. South Korea’s Kospi is down 1.79% at 2,427.86. Australia S&P/ASX 200 down 1.60% at 6875.30.

Top News of the Day:

Russia halted gas supplies via Europe’s key supply route on Wednesday, intensifying an economic battle between Moscow and Brussels and raising the prospects of recession and energy rationing in some of the region’s richest countries.

European governments fear Moscow could extend the outage in retaliation for Western sanctions imposed after it invaded Ukraine and have accused Russia of using energy supplies as a “weapon of war”. Moscow denies doing this and has cited technical reasons for supply cuts.

Market Summary as per 31/08/2022:

European equities Wednesday closing. The DAX futures contract in Germany traded down 0.97% at 12,834.96, CAC 40 futures down 1.37% at 6125.10 and the UK 100 futures contract in the U.K. down 1.05% at 7,284.16.

In the U.S. on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.88% at 31510.44. The S&P 500 down 0.78% at 3954.99 and the Nasdaq 100 down 0.57% at 12272.03, NYSE closes down 0.87% at 14801.24.

Top Market News Today:

In the Forex market, GBPUSD down 0.37% at 1.1578. The USDJPY up 0.33% at 139.411. The USDCHF up 0.26% at 0.9801. EURUSD down 0.38% at 1.0012, EUR/GBP down 0.01% at 0.8647. The USD/CNY up 0.21% at 6.9034 at the time of writing.

In the Commodity market U.S. Gold futures down 0.31% at $1,705.55. Elsewhere, Silver futures down 1.08% at $17.773 per ounce, Platinum down 0.18% at $842.50 per ounce, and Palladium down 0.12% at $2082.50.

Crude Oil up on Thursday; Brent Crude Oil up 0.18% at $95.11 per barrel while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (CLc1) up 0.34% at $88.76.

In the Cryptocurrency Markets, Bitcoin at 19940.00 down 0.62%, Ethereum up 0.19% at 1557.10, Litecoin at 55.10 up 2.45%, at the time of writing.

Top Market Segment to Watch Out Today:

Amazon.com Inc: Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) introduced a new service on Wednesday to help its sellers store bulk inventory and ease distribution to tackle supply chain issues, the company said in a blog post.

In 2023, sellers will be able to use the new service called Amazon Warehousing & Distribution (AWD) to send their inventory to any location, including to wholesale customers or brick-and-mortar stores, the online retailer said.

Economic News:

US: U.S. private payrolls increased moderately in August, according to the ADP National Employment report, which likely exaggerates the slowdown in the labor market as government data continues to point to strong demand for workers and very tight conditions.

Private employment rose by 132,000 jobs in August after increasing 268,000 in July, the ADP report showed on Wednesday.

Government data on Tuesday showed that there were 11.2 million job openings on the last business day of July, with two openings for every unemployed person. Despite the Federal Reserve’s rapid pace of interest rate increases to quell inflation, there have been no widespread layoffs, with weekly jobless claims still at considerably low levels.

The ADP report was suspended for June and July while the company revamped the methodology for the data after a poor record predicting the private payrolls count in the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics employment report.

Eurozone: The Russian economy shrank 0.4% in the first six months of 2022 compared with a year ago but capital investment, one of the main economic growth drivers, rose 7.8%, data from the federal statistics service Rosstat showed on Wednesday.

The export-dependent economy is plunging into recession, hit by sweeping Western sanctions for what Moscow calls “a special military operation” in Ukraine. But the depth of contraction has so far been not as big as initially thought.

In 2022, the economy will shrink by less than 3%, a top government official said this week. His call contrasts with the earlier assumption from the economy ministry that had warned of a drop of more than 12% – which would have been the biggest fall in economic output since the mid-1990s crisis following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In the second quarter alone, capital investment rose by 4.1% year-on-year after a 12.8% increase in the first quarter, Rosstat data showed, with mining and manufacturing sectors accounting for the bulk of the increase in the first half of the year.

Top Economic Releases Today:

1. GERMANY Manufacturing PMI (Aug) today at 3:55 this time estimated 49.80, previously which was 49.30. 
2. U.K. Manufacturing PMI (Aug) today at 4:30 this time estimated 46.00, previously which was 46.00.
3. CANADA Building Permits (MoM) (Jul) today at 8:30 this time estimated -0.5%, previously which was -1.5%.
4. RUSSIA Central Bank reserves (USD) today at 9:00 previously which was 574.0B.
5. U.S. Manufacturing PMI (Aug) Home Loans (MoM) today at 10:00 this time estimated 52.00, previously which was 52.80.

TECHNICAL SUMMARY

Forex Technical Analysis

GBPUSD

TRADE SUGGESTION– SELL AT 1.1585, TAKE PROFIT AT 1.1566 AND STOP LOSS AT 1.1591

EURUSD

TRADE SUGGESTION- SELL AT 1.0018, TAKE PROFIT AT 0.9996 AND STOP LOSS AT 1.0046

GBPJPY

TRADE SUGGESTION– SELL AT 161.388, TAKE PROFIT AT 160.795 AND STOP LOSS AT 161.924

CHFJPY

TRADE SUGGESTION- BUY AT 142.254, TAKE PROFIT AT 142.787 AND STOP LOSS AT 141.387

indices Technical Analysis

NIKKEI 225

TRADE SUGGESTION- SELL AT 27619.00 TAKE PROFIT AT 27494.00 AND STOP LOSS AT 27742.00

commodities Technical Analysis

WTI CRUDE OIL

TRADE SUGGESTION- SELL AT 88.76 TAKE PROFIT AT 87.12 AND STOP LOSS AT 90.43

GOLD

TRADE SUGGESTION- SELL AT 1703.84, TAKE PROFIT AT 1702.46 AND STOP AT 1705.97

cryptocurrency Technical Analysis

ETHEREUM

TRADE SUGGESTION- SELL AT 1544.50 TAKE PROFIT AT 1476.67 AND STOP AT 1607.01