Global Markets:
- Asian Stock Markets : Shanghai Composite up 0.10%
- Commodities : Gold at $1266.25 (+0.65%), Silver at $14.78 (+0.55%), Brent Oil at $54.27 (+0.31%), WTI Oil at $45.81 (+0.48%)
- Rates : US 10-year yield at 2.788, UK 10-year yield at 1.305, Germany 10-year yield at 0.248
News & Data:
- (USD) Revised UoM Consumer Sentiment 98.3 vs 97.6 expected
- (USD) Personal Spending m/m 0.40% vs 0.30% expected
- (USD) Core PCE Price Index m/m 0.10% vs 0.20% expected
- (USD) Durable Goods Orders m/m 0.80% vs 1.60% expected
- (USD) Final GDP q/q 3.40% vs 3.50% expected
- (USD) Core Durable Goods Orders m/m -0.30% vs 0.30% expected
- (CAD) Retail Sales m/m 0.30% vs 0.40% expected
- (CAD) GDP m/m 0.30% vs 0.20% expected
- (CAD) Core Retail Sales m/m 0.00% vs 0.20% expected
- (GBP) Public Sector Net Borrowing 6.3B vs 7.0B expected
- (GBP) Final GDP q/q 0.60% vs 0.60% expected
- (GBP) Current Account -26.5B vs -21.7B expected
- Australian shoppers expected to spend $18 billion at Christmas
- China Finance Ministry will not levy tariffs on 94 items including fertilizer and iron ore, to adjust tariffs on items, effective Jan 1st, 2019
CFTC Positioning Data:
- EUR short 53K vs 56K short last week. Shorts trimmed by 5K
- GBP short 61K vs 42K short last week. Shorts increased by 2K
- JPY short 103K vs 98K short last week. Shorts trimmed by 12K
- CHF short 23K vs 18K short last week. Shorts trimmed by 2K
- CAD short 7k vs 12k short last week. Shorts increased by 1K
- AUD short 35k vs 46k short last week. Shorts trimmed by 5K
- NZD short 3K vs 15K short last week. Shorts trimmed by 6K
Markets Update:
Asian stock markets are mixed on Monday on Christmas Eve trading as investors worried about the impact of a partial U.S. government shutdown and slowing global economic growth. News that U.S. President Donald Trump privately discussed firing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell also weighed on investor sentiment. Some of the markets will close early for Christmas.
South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.24 percent, with industry heavyweight Samsung Electronics declining 0.13 percent and chipmaker SK Hynix recovering to rise 0.83 percent. Australia’s ASX 200, which closed early today ahead of the upcoming Christmas holiday, finished the trading day higher by 0.48 percent at 5,493.8, with almost all sectors seeing gains.
The Chinese markets, closely watched worldwide amid Beijing’s trade spat with Washington, were higher by the end of the morning session. The Shanghai composite recovered from earlier losses to gain around 0.1 percent while the Shenzhen composite rose 0.2 percent.
The political uncertainty has only added to the air of risk aversion, punishing equities to the benefit of bonds. The gap between two- and 10-year yields has shrunk to only 14 basis points, a flattening of the curve that has sometimes heralded economic turning points in the past. The flight to safe havens was again boosting the Japanese yen, with the dollar near a three-month trough at 111.02 yen on Monday. It fared better on the euro, which was undermined by a run of poor data out of Europe.
Oil prices were near their lowest since the third quarter of 2017, having shed no less than 11 percent last week.
Upcoming Events:
Thursday, December 27, 2018
- 05:00 AM GMT – (JPY) BOJ Gov Kuroda Speaks
- 04:00 PM GMT – (USD) CB Consumer Confidence
Friday, December 28, 2018
- All Day GMT – (EUR) German Prelim CPI m/m
- 09:00 AM GMT – (CHF) KOF Economic Barometer
- 03:45 PM GMT – (USD) Chicago PMI
- &more…
