US stocks showed volatility today, influenced by the release of Durable Goods Orders data, which indicated a robust increase to 2.6% in March from 1.3% in February. Durable Goods Orders, a key economic indicator, measure the demand for products that are expected to last at least three years, providing insights into future manufacturing activity. Despite yesterday's PMI figures falling short of expectations, the US economy has maintained a strong position relative to other developed economies. As a result, investors continue to temper their expectations for interest rate cuts in the first half of the year. The dollar index experienced a modest rebound from its recent drop, rising to 105.82, while the 10-year US Treasury yield increased to 4.66%. Attention is now turning to tomorrow's GDP growth figures for Q1 2024, which will be closely analysed for insights into the Federal Reserve's potential monetary policy shifts.
Base metals remained broadly unchanged today, following yesterday's moves on the downside. This indicates that the market is uncertain about lower prices in the meantime, suggesting the longer-term trend remains on the upside. Still, the complex is now trading at multi-month highs, and there is little fundamental incentive to prompt these prices to rise rapidly. In particular, copper is close to the psychological resistance of $10,000/t level, and we expect some market hesitation above this level; in the meantime, the metal is closing at $9,773.50/t. Likewise, aluminium was seen struggling above the $2,600/t level today. Lead and zinc remained unchanged day-on-day.
Gold and silver showed stability after recent declines, trading at $2,326.8/oz and $27.25/oz respectively. Oil prices remained largely unchanged, with WTI at $83.13/bl and Brent at $88.33/bl.
All price data is from 22.04.2024 as of 17:30