Global Markets:
- Asian Stock Markets : Nikkei up 0.40%, Shanghai Composite up 1.39%, Hang Seng up 0.16%, ASX up 0.59%
- Commodities : Gold at $1820.95 (+0.02%), Silver at $19.24 (+0.42%), Brent Oil at $43.05 (-0.55%), WTI Oil at $40.66 (-0.59%)
- Rates : US 10-year yield at 0.650, UK 10-year yield at 0.169, Germany 10-year yield at -0.454
News & Data:
- (NZD) ANZ Business Confidence -29.8 vs -34.4 previous
- (USD) Crude Oil Inventories 5.7M vs -3.2M expected
- US consumers reduced their borrowing by $18.3 billion in May
- Japan machinery orders rise 1.7% on month in May
Markets Update:
Asian stock markets are mostly higher on Thursday following the positive lead overnight from Wall Street, reflecting gains by technology stocks and optimism about an economic recovery. However, gains are modest in most Asian markets amid worries about the surge in coronavirus cases in the U.S. and other parts of the world.
Mainland Chinese stocks, which have already seen a strong performance so far this week, continued to lead gains among the region’s major markets. The Shanghai composite gained 1.4%. The Japanese market is modestly higher following upbeat Japanese core machine orders data, with the Nikkei up 0.4%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was 0.2% higher with shares of Chinese tech juggernaut Alibaba soaring almost 10%. The Australian market is advancing following the positive cues from Wall Street. In addition, higher commodity prices boosted resources stocks.
U.S. Treasuries were not sold in to the rally either, and nor were the safe havens of gold or the Japanese yen. The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was last at 96.277 after declining from levels above 96.8 yesterday.
Upcoming Events:
- 12:15 PM GMT – (CAD) Housing Starts
- 12:30 PM GMT – (USD) Unemployment Claims
- 02:00 PM GMT – (USD) Final Wholesale Inventories m/m
- 02:30 PM GMT – (USD) Natural Gas Storage
- 05:01 PM GMT – (USD) 30-y Bond Auction
- 11:50 PM GMT – (JPY) PPI y/y