Global Markets:
- Asian Stock Markets : Nikkei down 0.29%, Shanghai Composite down 0.01%, Hang Seng down 0.32%, ASX down 0.27%
- Commodities : Gold at $1480.55 (+0.13%), Silver at $17.04 (-0.06%), Brent Oil at $66.17 (0.00%), WTI Oil at $60.83 (-0.03%)
- Rates : US 10-year yield at 1.920, UK 10-year yield at 0.782, Germany 10-year yield at -0.240
News & Data:
- (AUD) Unemployment Rate 5.20% vs 5.30% expected
- (AUD) Employment Change 39.9K vs 14.5K expected
- (NZD) GDP q/q 0.70% vs 0.50% expected
- (USD) Crude Oil Inventories -1.1M vs -1.5M expected
- (CAD) Trimmed CPI y/y 2.20% vs 2.20% expected
- (CAD) Median CPI y/y 2.40% vs 2.20% expected
- (CAD) Common CPI y/y 1.90% vs 1.90% expected
- (CAD) CPI m/m -0.10% vs -0.10% expected
- (GBP) PPI Input m/m -0.30% vs 0.00% expected
- (GBP) CPI y/y 1.50% vs 1.40% expected
- (EUR) German Ifo Business Climate 96.3 vs 95.6 expected
- BoJ Gov Kuroda: The Risks For Overseas Economies Remain High
- China issues new list for tariff exemption on US Goods: Xinhua
Markets Update:
Asian stock markets are mostly lower on Thursday with modest losses following the lackluster cues overnight from Wall Street and as investors preferred to remain on the sidelines due to a lack of fresh catalysts.
Investors digested news that the U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump, making him the third U.S. president to be impeached. Trump will now face a Senate trial next month. However, removing the president from office requires a two-thirds majority in the Senate, where the Republicans enjoy control.
Mainland Chinese stocks recovered from an earlier slip by the market close. The Shanghai composite was largely unchanged while the Shenzhen composite gained 0.21%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index declined more than 0.3%, as of its final hour of trading, with shares of Chinese tech behemoth Tencent dropping more than 1%. South Korea’s Kospi closed slightly higher. Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia shed 0.3%.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 97.323 after seeing an earlier high of 97.42. British inflation remained mired at a three-year low in November, data showed on Wednesday, and uncertainty surrounding Brexit remains high, but this is unlikely to shift expectations that monetary policy will remain on hold.
The yen held steady at 109.58 per dollar after the Bank of Japan kept its quantitative easing in place and issued a gloomier assessment on factory output.
Upcoming Events:
- 09:30 AM GMT – (GBP) Retail Sales m/m
- 12:00 PM GMT – (GBP) MPC Official Bank Rate Votes
- 12:00 PM GMT – (GBP) Monetary Policy Summary
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- 01:30 PM GMT – (USD) Philly Fed Manufacturing Index
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