US equity-index futures were steady on Friday and Treasuries gained, capping a tumultuous week for global markets amid lingering concern that the financial turmoil which has roiled bonds and stocks is not over.
(Bloomberg) — US equity-index futures were steady on Friday and Treasuries gained, capping a tumultuous week for global markets amid lingering concern that the financial turmoil which has roiled bonds and stocks is not over.
Contracts on the S&P 500 fluctuated after the index rallied 1.8% yesterday as larger banks threw a lifeline to First Republic Bank, the latest US lender to signal stress. That didn’t stop shares in First Republic from sliding in pre-market trading, however. On the plus side, FedEx Corp. jumped more than 10% after the courier boosted its profit outlook.
Futures on the Nasdaq 100 were flat as the rates-sensitive gauge heads for its best week since November amid expectations the Federal Reserve will temper its tightening path. The 10-year Treasury yield dipped and a gauge of the dollar declined.
Banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. banded together in a show of support for First Republic on Thursday. While the rescue attempt helped boost sentiment, billionaire investor Bill Ackman was among those questioning whether it would be enough to halt the crisis. Meanwhile, US banks borrowed a combined $164.8 billion from two Federal Reserve backstop facilities in the most recent week, a sign of escalated funding strains in the aftermath of Silicon Valley Bank’s failure.
“We do not expect a full-blown financial crisis, but one must not dismiss the underlying dynamics,” said Karsten Junius, the chief economist at Bank J Safra Sarasin AG. “Financial conditions will most likely tighten further and increase recession risks. We therefore advocate a defensive positioning with regard to risk assets and a tactically cautious stance on the banking sector, even though the constructive case for banks remains intact over the medium to longer term.”
Friday’s quarterly triple witching, where contracts for index futures, equity index options and stock options all expire, could amp up swings in trading.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index pared an advance. A gauge of European banking stocks is heading for a drop of almost 9% this week as yet another early rally lost steam Friday. Shares in the troubled Swiss lender Credit Suisse Group AG resumed a decline as the idea of a forced combination with a larger rival UBS Group AG was shot down. The stock had rallied almost 20% Thursday after the Swiss central bank stepped in with support. Bonds across Europe gained, with Germany’s 10-year yield down four basis points.
Markets were also digesting a 50 basis points rate hike by the European Central Bank. By making it clear that stress points in the banking industry — as well as economic data — will guide future rate decisions, ECB Chief Christine Lagarde paved the way for bond-market gyrations to remain elevated for the remainder of the year as traders try to figure out when the hiking cycle will end.
US two-year yields have whipsawed at least 20 basis points a day for six straight sessions through Thursday as traders re-calibrated rate-hike bets. Market pricing for the Fed’s March 21-22 meeting has lurched between another quarter-point hike, and the first rate pause in more than a year. US overnight indexed swaps are now pricing for an 80% probability of a quarter-percentage point Fed rate hike next week.
BlackRock Investment Institute does not expect cracks in the financial sector to deter central banks from raising rates further to contain inflation. It expects both the ECB and the Fed to “go as far as possible to distinguish their inflation fighting campaigns from measures to deal with bank troubles and safeguard the financial system,” a team of BlackRock analysts wrote in a note.
Elsewhere, equity indexes rose in Hong Kong, Japan and Australia gained amid a rebound in banking shares. Even so, an Asia equity gauge was set for a second weekly loss after the recent banking-sector turbulence.
In China, traders were able to access widely used bond price feeds again after an abrupt suspension of the data earlier in the week roiled the $21 trillion market.
Bitcoin rose to near the highest level since June amid a broad rally in cryptocurrencies. Other tokens such as Ether, Solana and Polkadot surged as well. Oil advanced but was still headed for the worst week so far this year. Gold rose.
These are the main market moves:
Stocks
- S&P 500 futures were little changed as of 6:37 a.m. New York time
- Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.1%
- Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2%
- The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.4%
- The MSCI World index rose 0.3%
Currencies
- The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2%
- The euro rose 0.2% to $1.0632
- The British pound rose 0.2% to $1.2132
- The Japanese yen rose 0.4% to 133.18 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
- Bitcoin rose 7.4% to $26,583.67
- Ether rose 4.7% to $1,737.47
Bonds
- The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined four basis points to 3.54%
- Germany’s 10-year yield declined four basis points to 2.25%
- Britain’s 10-year yield declined four basis points to 3.38%
Commodities
- West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.8% to $69.55 a barrel
- Gold futures rose 0.6% to $1,952.10 an ounce
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Tassia Sipahutar.
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