The Dow Jones and others closed higher on Thursday (30/03/23), led by technology stocks in the Nasdaq index, which gained the largest percentage of 0.7%, as the rise in Treasury bond yields subsided after the release of Initial Jobless Claims data came in higher than expected at 198,000 (also higher than 191,000 in the previous week). Looking at this reading, economists expect higher claims to return in the second quarter of this year; thus, reigniting optimism that inflationary pressures are easing and could be a reason for the Federal Reserve to end the upward trend in benchmark interest rates soon. Additionally, President Joe Biden called on regulators to step up oversight on banks, urging them to reinstate rules that were rolled back by the Trump administration, following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. From the Europe, German Inflation (Mar.) successfully eased to 7.4% YoY from 8.7% the previous month, although concerns on monthly Inflation growth remained unmoved at 0.8% mom, the same as the Feb figure. Today, a slew of macroeconomic data from the East and West will be released, including Tokyo Inflation (Mar.), Chinese Composite PMI (Mar.), UK 4Q22 GDP, German Retail Sales (Feb.), Unemployment Change (Mar.), and Eurozone CPI (Mar.); to cap it off, tonight from 7.30 pm local time comes the US Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) Price Index; which is an Inflation indicator specific to the public consumption sector (excluding food and energy prices), followed by Personal Spending (Feb.) and Michigan Consumer Expectations & Sentiment (Mar.)

On the other hand, JCI was rather hesitant to continue its short-term strengthening on Thursday trading (30/03/23) after touching the Resistance of medium-term downtrend channel pattern right at 6868.63 High yesterday, in line with profit taking action by investors as they further digest the direction of global economic situation. Nevertheless, foreign buying interest continued to flow in with Foreign Net Buy of IDR 1.2trillion, where the top 3 largest purchases were in bluechips bank stocks. With one more day left until the end of March, foreign net buy has hit IDR 2.54trillion on a monthly basis (all markets). NHKSI RESEARCH advises Indonesian capital market investors/traders to maintain a HOLD position on late week trades pending the development of important economic data from the US.

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