US indices slumped yesterday and finished trading near daily lows. S&P 500 dropped 4.04%, Dow Jones moved 3.57% lower and Nasdaq slumped 4.73%. Russell 2000 dropped 3.56%

Downbeat moods extended into Asian trading session. Nikkei dropped 2%, S&P/ASX 200 moved 1.6% lower and Kospi dipped 1.4%. Indices from China traded up to 2.7% lower

DAX futures point to a lower opening of the European cash session

Shanghai authorities said that more employees will be allowed to return to work in districts where there are no new Covid-19 cases. City’s vice-mayor also said that port throughput recovered to 90% of year ago levels

First case of rare monkeypox was detected in the United States. US officials will look whether case is linked to small outbreaks of the disease found in Europe recently

Fed Harker said he expects 50 basis point rate hikes in June and July

Australian jobs report for April showed a 4k increase in employment (exp. +30k). Unemployment rate dropped from 4.0 to 3.9% (exp. 3.9%). This is the lowest unemployment rate reading in almost 50 years!

Japanese exports were 12.5% YoY higher in April (exp. 13.8% YoY) while imports increased 28.2% YoY (exp. 35% YoY)

Japanese machinery orders increased 7.1% MoM in March (exp. 3.6% MoM)

Cryptocurrencies are trading lower. Bitcoin drops 0.4% and Ethereum trades 1% lower

Brent and WTI trade around 0.8% higher on the day

Gold, silver and platinum trade a touch lower on Thursday. Palladium gains 0.2%

NZD and AUD are the best performing major currencies while JPY and USD lag the most

Brent (OIL) took a hit with other risk assets yesterday but a recovery attempt can be spotted today. Price found support at the zone marked with 50% retracement of a March-April correction. However, bulls seem to struggle with pushing OIL above the resistance zone marked with 61.8% retracement