Asia Pacific stocks were down on Thursday morning. The Shanghai composite is down 0.17% at 3,589.05. Overall, the Singapore MSCI down 0.39% at 334.70. Over in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index down 0.29% at 22,834.00. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 down 2.70% at 28,480.00, while the Topix index is down 1.99% at 1997.0. South Korea’s Kospi down 1.25% to 2916.14. Australia S&P/ASX 200 down 2.74% at 7358.3.

European equities Wednesday closing. The DAX futures contract in Germany traded up 0.74% at 16271.75, CAC 40 futures up 0.81% at 7376.38 and the UK 100 futures contract in the U.K. up 0.16% at 7,516.86.

In U.S. on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 1.07% at 36407.12. The S&P 500 down 1.94% at 4700.59 and the Nasdaq 100 down 3.12% at 15771.78, NYSE closes down 1.29% at 17112.60.

In the Forex market, GBPUSD down 0.18% at 1.3527. The USDJPY down 0.18% at 115.869. The USDCHF up 0.22% at 0.91827. EURUSD down 0.08% at 1.1302, EUR/GBP up 0.17% at 0.8355. The USD/CNY up 0.16% at 6.3743 at the time of writing.

In the commodity market U.S. Gold futures down 0.39% at $1,801.98. Elsewhere, Silver futures down 1.03% at $22.560 per ounce, Platinum down 1.53% at $968.50 per ounce, and Palladium down 0.59% at $1855.50.

Crude Oil up on Thursday; Brent crude oil up 0.11% at $80.14 per barrel while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (CLc1) is up 0.84% at $78.36.

In the Cryptocurrency Markets, Bitcoin at 43167.89 down 0.62%, Ethereum down 2.17% at 3461.78, Litecoin at 136.47 up 0.88%, at the time of writing.

TOP STOCKS TO WATCH OUT TODAY:

Nucor Corp. up 4.826% at $122.72, AT&T Inc. up 2.223% at $26.21, Pfizer Inc. up 2.017% to $55.63, Moderna Inc. down 7.65% to $215.23, Adobe Inc. down 7.143% to $514.43, Okta Inc. down 7.637% at $198.59.

Economic news:

US: U.S. private payrolls increased more than expected in December, pointing to underlying labor market strength, but skyrocketing COVID-19 infections could slow momentum in the months ahead.

The surge in private hiring in the ADP National Employment Report on Wednesday was based on data collected in mid-December just as the Omicron variant was sweeping across the country, causing some events and hundreds of flights to be cancelled.

“The labor market continues to recover,” said Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC Financial (NYSE:PNC) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. “However, the Omicron variant is a substantial downside risk to the near-term labor market recovery.”

Private payrolls jumped by 807,000 jobs last month, the most in seven months, after rising by 505,000 in November. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast private payrolls would increase by 400,000 jobs.

The ADP report is jointly developed with Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) Analytics and was published ahead of the Labor Department’s more comprehensive and closely watched employment report for December on Friday. It has, however, a poor record predicting the private payrolls count in the department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics employment report because of methodology differences.

Eurozone: The euro zone’s economic recovery stuttered in December as a renewed wave of COVID-19 infections curtailed growth in the bloc’s dominant service industry, a survey showed on Wednesday, and could weaken further if tighter restrictions are imposed.

As the Omicron coronavirus variant spread rapidly at the end of last year governments reimposed measures to contain infection rates, particularly in Germany, Europe’s largest economy.

That meant IHS Markit’s Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), a good gauge of overall economic health, sank to 53.3 in December from 55.4 in November, its lowest since March.

While the final reading was below an earlier 53.4 “flash” estimate it did hold above the 50 mark separating growth from contraction.

Important Data: UK Composite PMI (Dec) today at 4:30 this time estimated 53.2, previously which was 57.6. UK Services PMI (Dec) today at 4:30 this time estimated 53.2, previously which was 58.5. US Initial Jobless Claims today at 8:30 this time estimated 197K, previously which was 198K. CANADA Trade Balance (Nov) today at 8:30 this time estimated 2.03B, previously which was 2.09B.

TECHNICAL REPORT

GBPUSD

TRADE SUGGESTION- BUY AT 1.35241, TAKE PROFIT AT 1.35710 AND STOP LOSS AT 1.34682

EURUSD

TRADE SUGGESTION- SELL AT 1.13000, TAKE PROFIT AT 1.12868 AND STOP LOSS AT 1.13192

EURGBP

TRADE SUGGESTION- SELL AT 0.83555, TAKE PROFIT AT 0.83338 AND STOP LOSS AT 0.83699

EURJPY

TRADE SUGGESTION- BUY AT 130.932, TAKE PROFIT AT 131.141 AND STOP LOSS AT 130.526.

DOW JONES

TRADE SUGGESTION- BUY AT 36208.00 TAKE PROFIT AT 36363.00 AND STOP LOSS AT 35881.00

WTI CRUDE OIL

TRADE SUGGESTION- BUY AT 76.89 TAKE PROFIT AT 78.30 AND STOP LOSS AT 76.30

GOLD

TRADE SUGGESTION- SELL AT 1802.34, TAKE PROFIT AT 1797.66 AND STOP AT 1807.31

ETHEREUM

TRADE SUGGESTION- SELL AT 3432.65 TAKE PROFIT AT 3407.37 AND STOP AT 3457.50