After yesterday’s rally attempt, Euro is trading as the weakest one in Asian session today, together with Swiss Franc. Both are yet to find sustainable buying.
On the other hand, after a breather, Canadian Dollar is extending last week’s rally and is trading as the strongest one for today at this point. Dollar is helped by rebound in treasury yields. Yield curve also flattened in the “inverted” range. Yen also regains some grounds today.
Asian markets are mildly higher, expect in China. At this point:
- Nikkei is up 0.80%
- Hong Kong HSI is up 0.25%
- China Shanghai SSE is down -0.34%
- Singapore Strait Times is up 0.30%
Japan 10 year JGB yield turns positive today, up 0.021 at 0.007. It reached as low as -0.045 just last week.
Overnight:
- DOW rose 0.42% to 23531.35
- S&P 500 rose 0.70% to 2549.69
- NASDAQ rose 1.26% to 6823.47
- 10 year yield rose 0.23 to 2.682
DOW is still limited by 23713.93 fibonacci level. S&P 500 is held by equivalent level at 2537.61. Also NASDAQ is kept relatively far below equivalent level at 6932.44.
Yield curve is still inverted from 1-year (2.600), 2-year (2.541), 3-year (2.525) to 5 year (2.539). But they are now back above Federal funds rate target of 2.25-2.50%.
EU mulling reassurances to help UK PM May get Brexit deal approved
Reuters reported, with unnamed sources, that the EU is considering ways to help UK Prime Minister Theresa May to secure support from the parliament for the Brexit agreement. The Irish backstop is the key issue in focus. It’s politically a solution to avoid a hard Irish border that is not intended to be triggered. Even if it’s triggered, the backstop would be temporary. However, legally, UK is not allowed to quit the backstop unilaterally. EU officials are said to be considering the reassurances needed. One resolution is a commitment by EU to have a UK-EU free trade agreement in place by the end of 2021. That would help avoid triggering the backstop.
Separately, there are rumors that UK and EU officials are discussing the possibility of extending the Article 50 withdrawal notice, if the Brexit deal cannot be approved by the parliament by March 29 Brexit date. But the Prime Minister office reiterated to Telegraph that “The PM has always said that we would be leaving the EU on 29 March 2019, and we would not extend Article 50.”
Debate on the Brexit agreement will resume in Commons this Wednesday. A meaningful vote is scheduled for Tuesday, January 15.