Friday 27th December: Asian markets mostly higher

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Global Markets:

  • Asian Stock Markets : Nikkei down 0.36%, Shanghai Composite up 0.17%, Hang Seng up 1.22%, ASX up 0.40%
  • Commodities : Gold at $1513.45 (-0.06%), Silver at $17.88 (-0.62%), Brent Oil at $68.02 (+0.15%), WTI Oil at $61.80 (+0.19%)
  • Rates : US 10-year yield at 1.900, UK 10-year yield at 0.770, Germany 10-year yield at -0.245

News & Data:

  • (JPY) Retail Sales y/y -2.10% vs -1.70% expected
  • (JPY) Prelim Industrial Production m/m -0.90% vs -1.10% expected
  • (JPY) Unemployment Rate 2.20% vs 2.40% expected
  • (JPY) Tokyo Core CPI y/y 0.80% vs 0.60% expected
  • (USD) Unemployment Claims 222K vs 222K expected
  • Japan’s output, retail sales fall, signaling economic strains
  • China treads warily on US trade deal text to keep other partners on side

Markets Update:

Asian stock markets are mostly higher on Friday following the record highs overnight on Wall Street amid optimism over the likely signing of a phase one U.S.-China trade deal in January and as online retail giant Amazon.com said the holiday season was “record-breaking”.

The Australian market, which resumed trading after a two-day holiday, is modestly higher following the record highs on Wall Street. Mainland Chinese stocks gave up early gains by the afternoon, with the Shanghai composite up 0.2% while the Shenzhen component lost 0.1%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was lower by 0.4% as shares of index heavyweight Fast Retailing fell over 2% while the Topix index added 0.1%.

Both oil and gold held on to their recent gains. Brent crude, the global benchmark, extended gains into a fourth session, hitting $68.09 per barrel, the highest since mid-September. The rally in oil and gold boosted commodity-linked currencies in the past 24 hours with the New Zealand dollar up 0.6% and the Australian dollar up 0.3%.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was last at 97.435 after seeing earlier highs above 97.6 yesterday.

Upcoming Events:

  • 09:00 AM GMT – (CHF) Credit Suisse Economic Expectations
  • 09:00 AM GMT – (EUR) ECB Economic Bulletin
  • 09:30 AM GMT – (GBP) High Street Lending
  • 03:30 PM GMT – (USD) Natural Gas Storage
  • 04:00 PM GMT – (USD) Crude Oil Inventories