Tuesday 17th December: Santa comes early to Asian markets

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Global Markets:

  • Asian Stock Markets : Nikkei up 0.47%, Shanghai Composite up 1.27%, Hang Seng up 1.06%, ASX down 0.04%
  • Commodities : Gold at $1481.65 (+0.08%), Silver at $17.12 (+0.05%), Brent Oil at $65.42 (+0.12%), WTI Oil at $60.17 (+0.05%)
  • Rates : US 10-year yield at 1.861, UK 10-year yield at 0.821, Germany 10-year yield at -0.295

News & Data:

  • (NZD) ANZ Business Confidence -13.2 vs -26.4 previous
  • (USD) Flash Manufacturing PMI 52.5 vs 52.6 expected
  • (GBP) Flash Services PMI 49 vs 49.6 expected
  • (GBP) Flash Manufacturing PMI 47.4 vs 49.1 expected
  • (EUR) Flash Services PMI 52.4 vs 52 expected
  • (EUR) Flash Manufacturing PMI 45.9 vs 47.3 expected
  • (EUR) German Flash Services PMI 52 vs 51.7 previous
  • (EUR) German Flash Manufacturing PMI 43.4 vs 44.6 expected
  • (EUR) French Flash Manufacturing PMI 50.3 vs 51.5 expected
  • (EUR) French Flash Services PMI 52.4 vs 52.1 expected
  • Boris Johnson to legislate to rule out extension of EU ‘transition’, reveals Robert Peston

Markets Update:

Asian stock markets, with the exception of Malaysia, are higher on Tuesday following the record closing highs overnight on Wall Street reflecting continued positive sentiment after the U.S. and China finally reached an agreement on a phase one trade deal last week. However, gains are modest in most markets.

The Shanghai composite and the Shenzhen composite bounced nearly 1.3%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index also jumped 1.1%. Shares of Meitu, a popular photo-editing app in China, rocketed more than 8%, leading gains in tech stocks overall. Tencent was up more than 3%.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 added 0.5% while the Topix index gained 0.6%. The Kospi in South Korea jumped more than 1%. Shares of industry heavyweight Samsung Electronics was up by more than 3%, while chipmaker SK Hynix soared more than 4%. Meanwhile, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was flat.

Elsewhere currency markets were more pensive in the absence of many of the fine details of the trade deal. The U.S dollar recouped some of Monday’s losses, though moves were modest. Chinese officials opined that the wording of the agreement remained a delicate issue and care was needed to ensure expressions used in text did not re-escalate tensions.

Upcoming Events:

  • 09:30 AM GMT – (GBP) Average Earnings Index 3m/y
  • 01:30 PM GMT – (CAD) Manufacturing Sales m/m
  • 01:30 PM GMT – (USD) Building Permits
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