Global Markets:
- Asian stock markets: Nikkei up 0.20 %, Shanghai Composite rose 0.28 %, Hang Seng gained 0.80 %, ASX 200 down 0.77 %
- Commodities: Gold at $1278.07 (+0.28 %), Silver at $16.75 (+0.61 %), WTI Oil at $50.00 (-0.73 %), Brent Oil at $55.69 (-0.59 %)
- Rates: US 10-year yield at 2.31, UK 10-year yield at 1.35, German 10-year yield at 0.46
News & Data:
- (GBP) Construction PMI 48.1 vs 51.1 expected
- (NZD) GDT Price Index -2.4 % vs 0.9 % expected
- (NZD) ANZ Commodity Prices m/m 0.8 % vs -0.8 % previous
- (EUR) Spanish Unemployment Change 27.9 K vs 21.3 K expected
- (EUR) PPI m/m 0.3 % vs 0.1 % expected
- (JPY) Consumer Confidence 43.9 vs 43.5 expected
- (AUD) Commodity Prices y/y 18.3 % vs 20.8 % expected
- U.S. oil dips below $50 over doubts recent rally will last
- World Bank raises 2017, 2018 East Asia growth forecasts, sees geopolitical risks- RTRS
Markets Update:
Asian equities opened higher on Wednesday building on fresh records for U.S. indexes overnight and led by Japanese and Hong Kong markets today. The Hang Seng has been one of the world’s best-performing stock indexes this year, If the index finishes up more than 0.9% today, it would notch its highest close in a decade. The rally in the dollar petered out as investors awaited President Donald Trump’s decision on the leadership of the Federal Reserve and gauged prospects for U.S. tax cuts.
USDJPY is seen trading at 112.639 after falling over 40+ pips to lows of 112.50 as it was a broad-based USD drop in Asia today around the Tokyo fix. Overall, the Yen advanced 0.2 percent against the US Dollar. Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average Nikkei 225 also added 0.2% despite a rebound in the yen
EURUSD rose 0.2 percent to 1.1768 managing to gain over 30 pips with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy fighting to maintain control after 2.3 million Catalans voted in Sunday’s makeshift referendum, Catalan President Carles Puigdemont said he will declare independence within days. The dollar index, which tracks the dollar against a basket of currencies fell 0.2 percent and is currently valued at 93.44
AUDUSD is currently seen trading around 0.7857 as the AUD gained closed to 50 pips earlier in the session against the US Dollar reaching highs of 0.7875 before retracing to current levels. The Kiwi was the real winner in terms of gains as it climbed over 60 pips earlier in the session to reach highs of over 0.7200 against the US Dollar, currently the NZDUSD is seen trading lower at 0.7175.
Upcoming Events:
- All Day – (CNY) Chinese Bank Holiday
- 08:30 GMT – (GBP) Services PMI
- 12:15 GMT – (USD) ADP Non-Farm Employment Change
- 14:00 GMT – (USD) ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI
- 14:30 GMT – (USD) Crude Oil Inventories
- 17:15 GMT – (EUR) ECB President Draghi Speaks
- 19:15 GMT – (USD) Fed Chair Yellen Speaks
