Highlights: The market is increasing its bet that Fed’s rate hike will pause soon as March’s wholesale prices grew much slower than expected, reinforcing the CPI data on Wednesday that inflation is on an easing trend. This led tech stocks, especially the tech giants, to rally about 2% to 5% on Thursday.

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US wholesale inflation saw dramatic cooldown in March (3 min read)
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The US Producer Price Index (PPI) showed annualized price increases fell to 2.7% in March, the lowest level since January 2021, driven by falling goods prices and lower energy prices. This was a dramatic drop from the annual increase of 4.9% in February. On a monthly basis, PPI fell by 0.5%, which was also a significant drop compared to 0.1% in the previous month. Despite the volatile nature of month-to-month comparisons, some economists believe the downward slide in PPI could lead to lower prices in the coming months.

Goldman Sachs no longer expects Fed rate hike in June (2 min read)
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Goldman Sachs economists no longer expect the Fed to raise interest rates in June after the latest CPI report showed consumer prices cooled faster than expected in March. However, they still anticipate a 0.25% rate hike in May. Goldman had previously expected consecutive rate hikes at the Fed's May and June meetings. The prediction is in line with other investors, with the markets mostly priced in for a 0.25% hike in May, no hike in June, and a significant chance of a cut in July.

Apple India iPhone Output Soars to $7 Billion in China Shift (4 min read)
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Apple tripled production of iPhones in India last year, assembling more than $7 billion worth of devices as it accelerates to move out of China. Through expanding partners from Foxconn Technology to Pegatron Corp, the company now makes almost 7% of its iPhones in India. Apple is exploring ways to reduce its reliance on China as tensions between Washington and Beijing continue to escalate. If the aggressive expansion of its suppliers continues, Apple could assemble a quarter of all its iPhones in India by 2025.

Amazon cranks up AI competition against Microsoft, Google with new cloud tools (2 min read)

Amazon Web Services (AWS) released a suite of technologies to help other companies develop their own chatbots backed by artificial intelligence. AWS will offer a service called Bedrock that lets businesses customize foundation models with their data to create a unique model. The Bedrock service will let customers work with Amazon’s proprietary foundation models called Amazon Titan, but it will also offer a menu of models offered by other companies. This new service will compete directly with Microsoft and Google in the generative AI race.

Flows into ETFs treble in March as investors seek safety (5 min read)
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ETFs enjoyed a record-breaking month in March, with flows into them almost tripling to $62.1 billion, according to BlackRock data. Most of the money flowed into safe assets such as government bonds, particularly developed market government bond ETFs, which recorded a record $33.2 billion of inflows, beating the previous monthly record of $27.4 billion set in May 2022. Technology was among the most popular sectors in equities, while riskier assets like high-yield bonds and more cyclical energy ETFs fell out of favor.

Anticipation of Bitcoin Halving Fuels Crypto ETFs (3 min read)
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Bitcoin's price has risen over 80% this year due to factors such as interest rate declines and investor risk appetite. The halving, which occurs every four years and halves block rewards for miners, has historically increased Bitcoin's price. The next halving is expected in April or May 2024, fueling this year's Bitcoin rally and benefiting crypto-related ETFs like BITO, WGMI, BITQ, and BKCH. Nonetheless, past performance is not a guarantee of future results, and investors should be cautious.

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Thanks,
Thomas

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