Friday 29th November: Asian markets fall as investors worry about trade

IC Markets No Comments

 Global Markets:

  • Asian Stock Markets : Nikkei down 0.49%, Shanghai Composite down 0.70%, Hang Seng down 2.16%, ASX down 0.26%
  • Commodities : Gold at $1464.65 (+0.26%), Silver at $17.05 (-0.02%), Brent Oil at $63.03 (-0.38%), WTI Oil at $58.02 (-0.15%)
  • Rates : US 10-year yield at 1.771, UK 10-year yield at 0.675, Germany 10-year yield at -0.365

News & Data:

  • (CAD) Current Account -9.9B vs -9.5B expected
  • (EUR) German Prelim CPI m/m -0.80% vs -0.70% expected
  • (AUD) Private Capital Expenditure q/q -0.20% vs 0.00% expected
  • (NZD) ANZ Business Confidence -26.4 vs -42.4 previous
  • RBA: “QE is not on our Agenda!”
  • BoJ’s Kuroda: Japan Needs To Raise Its Potential Growth Rate
  • Japan’s factory output posts biggest fall in almost two years

Markets Update:

Asian shares slipped on Friday, knocking a global stock index off its path to hitting an all-time peak as investors turned cautious, fearing a new U.S. law backing Hong Kong protesters could torpedo efforts to end the U.S.-China trade war.

Mainland Chinese stocks slipped by the afternoon, with the Shanghai composite down 0.7% and Shenzhen composite declining 0.5%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index led losses among major markets regionally as it fell 2.2% by the afternoon, with shares of Chinese tech giant Tencent dropping 2.5%. Elsewhere, Japan’s Nikkei 225 and Topix both slipped 0.5%. South Korea’s Kospi dropped 1.4% as shares of industry heavyweight Samsung Electronics fell almost 2%.

Major currencies were kept in tight ranges amid a dearth of any other significant developments in Sino-U.S. trade talks. The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was last at 98.317 after earlier touching a high of 98.349. As trading in major currencies slumbers, their implied volatilities, key gauges of expected swings measured by their option prices, plumbed to new record lows this week.

Oil prices were little changed on Friday but look set to have one of the best performances in recent months in November, with Brent futures up almost 5.5% month-on-month, which would be the biggest gain since April.

Upcoming Events:

  • 10:00 AM GMT – (EUR) CPI Flash Estimate y/y
  • 01:30 PM GMT – (CAD) GDP m/m
  • 01:30 PM GMT – (CAD) RMPI m/m
  • &more…