07:28 AM EDT, 06/19/2024 (MT Newswires) -- David Rosenberg, a high profile market commentator, on Wednesday noted that while Europe was flat, Asian equities staged a "nice recovery" with Hong Kong (+2.9%), Taiwan (+2.0%), Korea (+1.2%) and Japan's Nikkei 225 (+0.2%). China's Shanghai Composite was an exception, losing -0.4%. U.S. markets are closed in observance of the Juneteenth holiday.

Bond markets, Rosenberg noted, were quiet for the most part, outside of a pair of +3 basis point increases in 10-year yields in the U.K. (4.08%) and Australia (4.18%). Rosenberg said the move in U.K. inflation in May down to the BoE target of 2.0% from 2.3% in April (for the first time in three years) was widely dismissed (mostly because the services component remained stubbornly high at +5.7% YoY -- while down a touch from +5.9% in April, investors were hoping for something closer to +5.5%).

Rosenberg added the core rate of inflation paints a different picture, coming in at +3.5% year-over-year. He noted futures were now pricing in just a 30% chance of a U.K. rate cut in August, down from 45% before the data were released. The JGB market, meanwhile, had a mild bid, with the 10-year rate dipping -1 basis point and threatening to make a move back below 0.90% for the first time since early May.

According to Rosenberg, there were no big shifts in the FX market with the DXY dollar index stuck at the 50-day trendline at 105.25. On the commodity front, Brent crude was stabilizing at a seven-week high of US$85 per barrel, spot gold was little changed and Bitcoin had rebounded +0.5% to $65,214. Rosenberg said the April-May copper bubble "has been pricked", just as the nickel short squeeze was two years ago, with the red metal sliding -11% from the peak of a month ago as China reportedly is dumping its excess inventory (biggest glut in four years) in the world market. The country exported more copper than ever before this past month (all market quotes time-stamped to 4:30 a.m. ET).

In addition to the CPI data, Rosenberg noted, the U.K. also published a set of relatively tame PPI numbers -- the input price measure was flat sequentially while output prices dipped -0.1% (the former at -0.1% YoY and the latter at +1.7%). Again, it was the core CPI and the services segment that have dominated market sentiment today, he said.