Daily Market Report (19 January 2024)
- Wall Street closed broadly firmer from bargain hunting activities despite a mixed corporate earnings result coupled with the lower weekly claims for unemployment benefits indicating that the labour market is still robust thus no reason for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rate as yet with the US 10-year yield inching higher to 4.142%.
- Over in Hong Kong, the HSI rebounded as the recent sell-down may have been overdone.
- On the domestic front, the FBM KLCI maintained its downtrend as it closed just below the 1,480 level.
- We deem the selling had been excessive as fundamentals were all largely intact.
- Nonetheless, overall sentiment may have been affected by MACC’s move to investigate some political heavyweights and hopefully a rebound is happening soon, hence we expect the index to hover within the 1,480-,1490 range today.
- Meanwhile, the bloodbath amongst a selected group of small caps may persist as the contagion is spreading which will impact overall trading participation of retailers over the immediate term.
