Global Markets:
- Asian Stock Markets : Nikkei down 0.69%, Shanghai Composite up 2.28%, Hang Seng up 0.51%, ASX down 0.07%
- Commodities : Gold at $1585.05 (-0.09%), Silver at $17.85 (+0.64%), Brent Oil at $57.37 (+0.09%), WTI Oil at $52.41 (+0.17%)
- Rates : US 10-year yield at 1.588, UK 10-year yield at 0.616, Germany 10-year yield at -0.393
News & Data:
- (USD) Prelim UoM Consumer Sentiment 100.9 vs 99.5 expected
- (USD) Retail Sales m/m 0.30% vs 0.30% expected
- (USD) Core Retail Sales m/m 0.30% vs 0.30% expected
- (EUR) German Prelim GDP q/q 0.00% vs 0.10% expected
- China Says Coronavirus Cases Rise to 70,548, Deaths Hit 1,770
- Japan’s economy shrinks at fastest pace in 6 years, virus clouds outlook
CFTC Positioning Data:
- EUR short 47K vs 48K short last week. Shorts trimmed by 1K
- EUR short 86K vs 75K short last week. Shorts increased by 11K
- GBP long 21K vs 13K long last week. Longs increased by 8K
- JPY short 26K vs 21K short last week. Shorts increased by 5k
- CHF long 4K vs 5K long last week. Longs decreased by 1K
- AUD short 33k vs 43K short last week. Shorts decreased by 10K
- NZD short 4K vs 2K short last week. Shorts increased by 2K
- CAD long 10k vs 19K long last week. Longs decreased by 9K.
Markets Update:
Asian stock markets are mixed on Monday following the lackluster cues from Wall Street Friday and as investors continued to assess the potential economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak. The Chinese market is rising amid hopes of more fiscal stimulus measures by the government to offset the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. On Monday, the People’s Bank of China cut rates on its medium-term loans.
Chinese shares on the mainland rose: The Shanghai composite rose 2.3%, the Shenzhen composite was up 2.9%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.5%. Elsewhere, Japanese shares fell, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 down 0.7% and the Topix index off by 0.9%. Cabinet Office data revealed the Japanese economy shrunk at an annualized pace of 6.3% in the three months that ended in December. South Korea’s Kospi index reversed losses to trade flat.
In the currency market, the U.S. dollar traded at 99.114 against a basket of currencies, little changed from an earlier high of 99.151. Crude oil prices surged higher on Friday with traders creating fresh long positions amid hopes the coronavirus impact may not weigh on the global economy for long.
Upcoming Events:
Tuesday, February 18, 2020
- 12:30 AM GMT – (AUD) Monetary Policy Meeting Minutes
- 12:30 AM GMT – (CNY) New Loans
- 09:30 AM GMT – (GBP) Average Earnings Index 3m/y
- 10:00 AM GMT – (EUR) German ZEW Economic Sentiment
- 01:30 PM GMT – (CAD) Manufacturing Sales m/m
Wednesday, February 19, 2020
- 12:30 AM GMT – (AUD) Wage Price Index q/q
- 09:30 AM GMT – (GBP) CPI y/y
- 09:30 AM GMT – (GBP) PPI Input m/m
- 01:30 PM GMT – (CAD) CPI m/m
- 01:30 PM GMT – (CAD) Common CPI y/y
- 01:30 PM GMT – (CAD) Median CPI y/y
- 01:30 PM GMT – (CAD) Trimmed CPI y/y
- 01:30 PM GMT – (USD) Building Permits
- 01:30 PM GMT – (USD) Core PPI m/m
- 01:30 PM GMT – (USD) PPI m/m
- 07:00 PM GMT – (USD) FOMC Meeting Minutes
Thursday, February 20, 2020
- 12:30 AM GMT – (AUD) Employment Change
- 12:30 AM GMT – (AUD) Unemployment Rate
- 09:30 AM GMT – (GBP) Retail Sales m/m
- 12:30 PM GMT – (EUR) ECB Monetary Policy Meeting Accounts
- 01:30 PM GMT – (USD) Philly Fed Manufacturing Index
- 04:00 PM GMT – (USD) Crude Oil Inventories
Friday, February 21, 2020
- 08:15 AM GMT – (EUR) French Flash Services PMI
- 08:15 AM GMT – (EUR) French Flash Manufacturing PMI
- 08:30 AM GMT – (EUR) German Flash Manufacturing PMI
- 08:30 AM GMT – (EUR) German Flash Services PMI
- 09:00 AM GMT – (EUR) Flash Manufacturing PMI
- 09:00 AM GMT – (EUR) Flash Services PMI
- 09:30 AM GMT – (GBP) Flash Manufacturing PMI
- 09:30 AM GMT – (GBP) Flash Services PMI
- 01:30 PM GMT – (CAD) Core Retail Sales m/m
- 01:30 PM GMT – (CAD) Retail Sales m/m
- 02:45 PM GMT – (USD) Flash Manufacturing PMI