Tuesday's Markets Update (April 18, 2023)

19 Apr 2023 by rate3

On Tuesday, the Census Bureau announced that building permits for March had dropped by 8.8 percent to 1.413 million, which was more than the anticipated decrease of only 6 percent, according to economists. Additionally, the Bureau of Statistics of China reported that the national economy had grown by 4.5 percent in Q1, compared to 2.9 percent in Q4 and market estimates of 4.0 percent, due to a surge in retail sales. This was the best performance since Q1 of 2022.

Although many analysts question the reliability of China's government statistics, it still contributes to the basket of macroeconomic positives. Nevertheless, markets dismissed all of this as old news and continued to focus on technical indicators, with NASDAQ (o:12234, c:12153) retreating slightly from a strong resistance zone at 12200-12300, and BTC (o:30303, c:30221) consolidating.