Global Markets:
- Asian Stock Markets : Nikkei down 0.49%, Shanghai Composite down 0.26%, Hang Seng down 0.69%, ASX down 0.94%
- Commodities : Gold at $1329.65 (+0.01%), Silver at $15.84 (+0.05%), Brent Oil at $64.77 (-0.22%), WTI Oil at $55.22 (-0.47%)
- Rates : US 10-year yield at 2.652, UK 10-year yield at 1.185, Germany 10-year yield at 0.101
News & Data:
- (USD) Final Wholesale Inventories m/m 1.10% vs 0.30% expected
- BoJ’s Kuroda: ETF purchases are an important part of monetary policy
- PBoC To Expand Channels For Equity Financing, Pan Says: CCTV
- CBA says the British pound could spike 2% if Brexit is delayed
Markets Update:
Asian stock markets are in negative territory on Tuesday despite the modest gains overnight on Wall Street as investors treaded cautiously ahead of the second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam. Investors also await Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s testimony before Congress for fresh clues about the outlook for U.S. interest rates.
In a volatile session Tuesday, mainland Chinese stocks recovered from most of its earlier losses by the end of the morning session. The Shanghai composite traded lower by 0.3 percent while the Shenzhen component traded flat. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.7 percent.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.5 percent while the Topix declined 0.2 percent in afternoon trade. In South Korea, the Kospi fell 0.3 percent as shares of industry heavyweight Samsung Electronics slipped more than 1.2 percent. Australia’s ASX 200 fell 0.9 percent as the energy sector declined about 0.7 percent. Oil shares fell after crude dropped more than 3 percent on Monday following a tweet from U.S. President Donald Trump to OPEC that prices were “getting too high.”
In currency markets, sterling jumped to $1.3149, a near four-week high, in early Asian trade after Bloomberg reported May was expected to allow her cabinet to discuss extending the Brexit deadline beyond March 29 at a crunch meeting later in the day.
Oil prices fell again after posting their largest daily percentage drop this year on Monday as Trump called on OPEC to ease its efforts to boost crude prices, which he said were “getting too high.”
Upcoming Events:
- 11:00 AM GMT – (GBP) Inflation Report Hearings
- 04:00 PM GMT – (USD) CB Consumer Confidence
- 04:00 PM GMT – (USD) Fed Chair Powell Testifies
- 10:45 PM GMT – (NZD) Trade Balance
- &more…
