Nasdaq led the US stock index rally with its highest intraday gain in 8 months, supported by US Inflation (Apr.) data that came in at 4.9% YoY, slightly lower than forecast at 5%; as well as news regarding Alphabet’s latest AI launch. The US Labor Department reported monthly US CPI (Apr.) growth was also in-line with expectations at 0.4%, versus 0.1% in the previous month. Market participants responded positively to this inflation rate slowdown with the hope that the Federal Reserve could soon end this era of interest rate hikes; even the market began to calculate at least a 95% probability of a rate pause at the upcoming FOMC Meeting in June (as reported by the Fed Rate Monitor Tool from Investing.com). Meanwhile in Washington, the US government & Parliament continue their discussion on the urgency of raising the US debt ceiling which has touched USD 31.4trillion. So far, the deal seems deadlocked as the Democrats reject the option that requires them to save on spending.

From Europe, Germany released Inflation data (Apr.) which also met expectations at 7.2% YoY & 0.4% MoM. As for oil prices, the price fell by more than 1% after the US released their crude oil inventory data which turned out to be significantly above the forecast, increasing by 2.951 million barrels, vs. the forecast which was predicted to fall below 1 million barrels. Considering the market sentiment, hopefully the bullish move that started to emerge step by step this week can continue again today and bring JCI through the important Resistance 6825- 6845. NHKSI RESEARCH hereby advises investors to Average Up if the JCI Resistance breakout above 6825-6845 goes smoothly.

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