Economists now reckon the Fed rate cut to come in June: A slim majority ofeconomists — 53 out of 104 — polled by Reuters expect the US Federal Reserve to start cutting interest rates in June, with another 33 forecasting a May cut.

This is more or less in line with what the newswire’s surveys have been saying since September, projecting the Fed to ease its monetary policy around the middle of this year.

ICYMI: Fed officials have recently been doubling down on the need to see a strong indication of inflation cooling down before they deciding to start cutting rates.

MEANWHILE- Asian markets are in early trading this morning, tracking yesterday’s decline on Wall Street as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed in the red, dragged down by tech stocks. Major benchmarks in Europe look set to open in the red later this morning, and futures suggest a weak open on Wall Street.

TASI

12,606.50

+0.1% (YTD: +5.3%)

MSCI Tadawul 30

1,626.33

+0.4% (YTD: +4.9%)

USD : SAR (SAMA)

3.75 Sell

3.75 Buy

Interest rates

6% repo

5.5% reverse repo

EGX30

29,330.66

-0.4% (YTD: +17.8%)

ADX

9,400.28

-0.1% (YTD: -1.9%)

DFM

4,277.36

+0.1% (YTD: +5.4%)

S&P 500

4,975.51

-0.6% (YTD: +4.3%)

FTSE 100

7,719.21

-0.1% (YTD: -0.2%)

Euro Stoxx 50

4,760.28

-0.1% (YTD: +5.3%)

Brent crude

82.60

-1.2%

Natural gas (Nymex)

1.58

-2.1%

Gold

2,039.80

+0.8%

BTC

51,929.31

+0.3% (YTD: +114.7%)

THE CLOSING BELL-

The TASI rose 0.1% yesterday on turnover of SAR 10.3 bn. The index is up 5.3% YTD.

In the green: East Pipes (+6.4%), AlRajhi Takaful (+6.2%) and GACO (+6.1%).

In the red: AlArabia (-6.1%), Atheeb Telecom (-5.5%) and Ayyan (-5.4%).

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