The US
The beginning of the new quarter was auspicious for the American indices. They were driven by the manufacturing data and the number of jobs created in the private sector: USA30 was flat, while USA500 added 0.73%. TECH100 gained 0.74%.
The data from the American Petroleum Institute pushed oil prices higher. Oil rose by 2.2% to $40.14 per barrel, while Brent added 2.1% to $42.12.
Gold lost some of Tuesday's momentum and traded at $1,779.90 per ounce.
The Dollar Index slipped 0.04% to 97.118.
Asia and Australia
Japan225 fell 0.8% after real estate, and railway & bus sectors led shares lower once again.
Down Under, ASX closed higher by 0.62% as the gains were led by A-REITs and IT sectors.
USD/JPY was up 0.3% to 107.61.
AUD/USD lost 0.2% to 0.6890.
USD/CNY shed 0.01% to 7.0694.
Europe
Germany30 traded higher yesterday by 0.2% after retail sales data came better than expected. The increase in car sales wasn’t enough to give France40 momentum, which fell by 0.2%. UK100 slid 0.1% after airline stocks fell.
GBP/USD gained 0.09% to 1.2481.
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Sources: marketwatch.com, investing.com