Mixed Trends in Contract Trading in Europe and Wall Street; Oil prices are falling

Trading overview: latest reports, trends, indices, stocks, bonds, currency and commodity prices and analyst recommendations

12:15 p.m

Tech giant Meta, formerly Facebook, is expected to be fined 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) by the Irish Data Protection Commission, the European Union's data protection regulator, according to a Wall Street Journal report. This is the largest fine the Union has imposed on a data protection issue, after the Luxembourg regulator fined Amazon $800 million.

The reason for the fine is that Facebook does not comply with the stringent data protection standards set in Europe to protect user data by US security authorities.

11:40

Asian macro: Hong Kong CPI surprised a lot with an annualized pace of 2.1% in April - while forecasts called for a 1.8% rise. This is a significant improvement from March's 1.7% reading.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong's Heng Seng Index closed up 1.4%.

10:10

Trading on the European equity market starts with a mixed trend. Germany's DAX index was down about 0.2% and France's CAC also edged down, while London's FTSE was up 0.2%.

In Asia, the Nikkei index closed up 0.9% and in Shanghai the main index registered a 0.4% gain. In Hong Kong, where it is still traded, the Hang Seng index rose 1.5 percent - with Chinese technology stocks Alibaba, Xiaomi and electric car maker Geely leading the positive trend.

On Wall Street, there are not particularly strong swings in contract trading. Nasdaq futures were up about 0.1%, while S&P500 and Dow Jones futures fell 0.1% to 0.2%.

On commodity markets, the decline in crude oil futures contract exacerbated by around 1%.

8:10 am

In Asia, the current trend is positive. Japan's Nikkei rose 0.4%, China's Shanghai 0.1% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.3%. On the other hand, there was a slight decline in the Sydney and Taipei stock exchanges.

In China, it was announced this morning that the Bank of China interest rate will remain unchanged at 3.65%, as expected.

Stable contract on Wall Street. US stock indexes posted gains last week, with the Dow Jones up about 0.4%, the S&P 500 up 1.65% and the Nasdaq up more than 3% -- its best week since March.

In the US Treasury sector, yields fell slightly after six straight days of gains. The yield on the 10-year bond (which rose from 3.38% to 3.69% over the six-day period) is now down to 3.66%, and the yield on the two-year bond (which rose 3.89% over the same period) . fixed) is 4.27%) has decreased to 4.23%.

Crude oil prices fell by 0.8% in the commodity market. US crude fell to $71.1 a barrel, while Brent fell to $74.9 a barrel. Within a month, the contract price of oil fell 9.7% and 9.3%, respectively. So far this year, prices have fallen by more than 30% as commodity markets have returned to volatility following the Russo-Ukrainian war in May last year.

Gold traded steady after rising 1% to $1,977 an ounce on Friday. However, this figure is about 2% below the level a week ago.

The crypto market has decreased by up to 2%. Bitcoin weakened 1.6% to $26,600 and Ethereum fell to around $1,800 per coin. Ripple fell more than 2% to 45 cents - still nearly 7% higher than its price a week ago.

On the macro sector, the UK consumer price index for April will be released on Wednesday, forecasting an annual increase of 8.3% (compared to 10.1% in March). On the same day, the minutes of the last meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will be released in the US, which may provide an indication on the outlook for monetary policy in the future.

Also in the US this week: Growth data for the first quarter of the year is due on Thursday, with GDP expected to rise 1.1%. Private consumption expenditure data (Core PCE), the Fed's preferred measure of inflation, is due on Friday. April growth is expected to be 0.3%, bringing the annual growth rate to 4.6%, unchanged from March.