Global Markets:
- Asian Stock Markets : Nikkei up 0.70%, Shanghai Composite up 0.39%, Hang Seng up 1.07%, ASX up 0.94%
- Commodities : Gold at $1551.45 (-0.41%), Silver at $17.74 (-0.37%), Brent Oil at $64.36 (-0.36%), WTI Oil at $58.10 (-0.48%)
- Rates : US 10-year yield at 1.792, UK 10-year yield at 0.631, Germany 10-year yield at -0.236
News & Data:
- (AUD) Westpac Consumer Sentiment -1.80% vs -1.90% previous
- (CAD) Manufacturing Sales m/m -0.60% vs -0.50% expected
- (EUR) German ZEW Economic Sentiment 26.7 vs 15.2 expected
- (GBP) Average Earnings Index 3m/y 3.20% vs 3.10% expected
- Amazon boss Jeff Bezos’s phone ‘hacked by Saudi crown prince’
- China Experts Are Seeing A Possibility Of A Coronavirus Mutation – Xinhua
Markets Update:
Asian stock markets are mostly higher on Wednesday with some of the markets recovering after a weak start amid concerns about the spread of the deadly coronavirus from China and its potential impact on the global economy.
Health officials have already confirmed cases of the coronavirus infection in Thailand, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. The U.S. too confirmed its first case of the coronavirus in a patient who recently returned from Wuhan, China.
Mainland Chinese stocks pared some losses after dropping more than 1% in the morning, with the Shanghai composite up 0.4% and the Shenzhen component up 0.9%. The Nikkei 225 was 0.7% higher while the Topix index added 0.5%. The Kospi in South Korea also gained 1.2%. Meanwhile, stocks in Australia rose as the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.9%.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was last at 97.653 after seeing lows around 97.4 yesterday. So far, the yield on U.S. 10-year government bonds has stabilized after Tuesday’s drop, sitting a little firmer at 1.7883%.
The safe-haven yen eased slightly from the one-week high it touched overnight, although the yuan eased slightly in the onshore market to 6.8997 per dollar. Oil prices also settled back as traders figured a well-supplied global market would be able to absorb disruptions that have cut Libya’s crude production to a trickle.
Upcoming Events:
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- 03:00 PM GMT – (CAD) BOC Monetary Policy Report
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- 04:15 PM GMT – (CAD) BOC Press Conference