US indices finished yesterday’s trading with large gains. S&P 500 jumped 2.02%, Dow Jones moved 1.34% higher and Nasdaq gained 2.76%. Small-cap Russell 2000 rallied 3.19%

Stocks in Asia traded mixed. While Nikkei and S&P/ASX 200 traded 0.7% higher, Kospi gained just 0.1% and indices from China dropped

DAX futures point to a flat opening of the European cash session today

Fed Chair Powell said that interest rates will be raised beyond neutral levels if the situation requires it. Powell said Fed stays committed to bringing inflation down

Fed Evans said that he expects rates hikes to get smaller by July or September (25 basis points)

European Commission will prepare a €210 billion plan for ending dependance on Russian fossil fuels by 2027

More than 800 financial institution were allowed to resume operations in Shanghai in another sign of easing restrictions

Japanese GDP contracted 0.2% QoQ in Q1 2022 (exp. -0.4% QoQ)

API report pointed to a 2.44 million barrel drop in US oil inventories (exp. +1.5 mb)

Cryptocurrencies are pulling back today – Bitcoin drops 1.8% and Ethereum trades 2.1% lower

Oil trades 0.3% higher while precious metals drop slightly

NZD and JPY are the best performing major currencies while EUR and CAD lag the most

Russell 2000 (US2000) outperformed other major Wall Street indices yesterday, gaining over 3%. Small-cap index continues recovery from a recent downside breakout from a trading range. The nearest resistance to watch is marked with the lower limit of an earlier-broken range at 1,930 pts.