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Below is the daily global market update 21 October 2021 By Team Kristal.AI

“Equities rosy as ever

It was a muted day for equities overall but a sea of green across Europe and the US. India closed lower and HK led gains for a second session in a row. SPX was mixed overall - it traded just shy of record highs with 77% of its constituents in the green but the headline gain was only 0.37% and Utilities was the biggest gainer ahead of Healthcare, and Tech was lower on the day. The US dollar was soft once again with the US yield curve steepening strongly. The 10Y traded up to 1.67% now and the higher yield of the 20Y auction overnight pushed 30Y yields to 2.15% as well.

Crypto was abuzz with BITO becoming the first US listed ETF and pushing Bitcoin to record highs above 67k. Ethereum has also traded up to the 4.2k level in solidarity. This surpasses the highs that were hit in April ahead of the Coinbase IPO. What came after the high was a steep drop where Bitcoin fell to 30k levels. Whether that is likely here remains to be seen, but institutional acceptance seems strong here as some are portraying it as a hedge to inflation (while Gold isn't doing much). The downside risks of regulation and record issuance of unbacked stable coins remain.

Positive sentiment spilled over into the HY space too with China HY gaining for a second straight day. Dip buying remains strong in the higher quality real estate names despite news of Evergrande's stake sale falling through. It seems all but certain now that anything short of a state bailout will see a default triggered on its offshore debt in the coming weeks. Energy went up again as weekly Crude and gasoline inventories in the US came in far below expectations.

Ahead today we have Turkey's rate decision where another 1% cut to 17% is expected and also weekly jobless numbers from the US. WeWork will also start trading today after a SPAC merger (ticker is WE) with a market value of USD 9bn vs the 47 bn sought two years ago. On earnings, we have Intel, AT&T and Blackstone among others.”

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