Global Markets:
- Asian stock markets: Nikkei up 0.45 %, Shanghai Composite lost 0.51 %, Hang Seng dropped 0.30 %, ASX 200 climbed 0.10%
- Commodities: Gold at $1279.88 (-0.02 %), Silver at $16.96 (-0.10 %), WTI Oil at $51.99 (-0.18 %), Brent Oil at $58.14 (-0.23 %)
- Rates: US 10-year yield at 2.34, UK 10-year yield at 1.31, German 10-year yield at 0.40
News & Data:
- (AUD) Employment Change 19.8 K vs 14.1 K expected
- (AUD) Unemployment Rate 5.5 % vs 5.6 % expected
- (AUD) NAB Quarterly Business Confidence 7 vs 8 previous
- (CNY) GDP q/y 6.8 % vs 6.8 % expected
- (CNY) Industrial Production y/y 6.6 % vs 6.4 % expected
- (CNY) Fixed Asset Investment ytd/y 7.5 % vs 7.7 % expected
- (USD) Building Permits 1.22 M vs 1.25 M expected
- (USD) Housing Starts 1.13 M vs 1.18 M expected
- (USD) Crude Oil Inventories -5.7 M vs -4.7 M expected
Markets Update:
Asia-Pacific equity markets were mixed earlier on Thursday as investors digested a barrage of economic data releases out of China. The Key Asian indexes gaining was led by strength in Japan, thanks to a weaker yen and robust trade data. However, the Chinese markets fell in spite of economic data from the country showed a solid pace of growth last quarter
USDJPY had an active session early on Thursday, the dollar rose close to 0.1 percent against the Yen to 113.0, this is in continuation to 0.6 percent climb overnight on Wednesday. Japan's Nikkei .N225 advanced as high as 0.6 percent to a fresh 21-year high. The yen’s drop overnight against the U.S. dollar helped lift exporters.
EURUSD is currently seen trading around 1.1801 after the Euro popped above 1.1810 against the US Dollar earlier today down from lows under 1.1790. Overall the Euro gained close to 0.1 percent against the US Dollar. The dollar index, which tracks the dollar against a basket of currencies was seen trading flat and is currently valued at 93.37
AUDUSD rose as high at 0.7871 earlier in the session on back of strong Australian labour market report as the AUD gained close to 0.3 percent against the US Dollar. However, after the Chinese data release, the Aussie was not able to sustain its gains and is currently seen trading around 0.7850
Upcoming Events:
- 08:30 GMT – (GBP) Retail Sales m/m
- 08:30 GMT – (GBP) Retail Sales m/m
- 12:30 GMT – (USD) Unemployment Claims
- 12:30 GMT – (USD) Philly Fed Manufacturing Index
- 14:00 GMT – (USD) CB Leading Index m/m
- 14:30 GMT – (USD) Natural Gas Storage
