With no fresh catalyst to price in, Asian session market players were happy to take their cues from all the risk-taking in the previous trading session.
- Australia’s MI leading index slips by 0.1% vs. 0.0% reading in September
Major Events/Reports:
Risk-taking in the markets
Asian session market players took cues from their U.S. counterparts and priced in positive U.S. data, strong earnings reports, and a bit of risk-taking after days of seeing losses.
Chinese bourses were relatively more subdued, however, thanks to lingering trade war fears.
- Nikkei is up by 1.33% to 22,849.1
- A SX 200 is up by 0.56% to 5,924.4
- Shanghai index is up by 0.10% to 2,548.883
- Hang Seng is up by 0.07% to 25,463.3
Commodity prices missed the risk appetite train, with the safe-haven gold taking hits from a risk-friendly trading environment and a bit of dollar strength.
Meanwhile, crude oil benchmarks took breathers from their gains after a U.S. crude inventory report reflected a bigger-than-expected drawback in supplies.
- Gold is down by 0.22% to $1,221.80 per troy ounce
- Brent crude oil is down by 0.17% to $81.41 per barrel
- U.S. WTI is down by 0.24% to $71.98 per barrel
Major Market Mover(s):
NZD
New Zealand didn’t print any major report, so the Kiwi’s gains likely had more to do with the overall risk-taking in the markets than any specific economic release.
NZD/JPY is up by 12 pips (+0.17%) to 73.97; NZD/CAD is up by 17 pips (+0.20%) to .8530; NZD/CHF is up by 10 pips (+0.15%) to .6528; GBP/NZD is down by 9 pips (-0.07%) to 2.0009; EUR/NZD is down by 16 pips (-0.09%) to 1.7558, and AUD/NZD is down by 6 pips (-0.05%) to 1.0836.
CAD
The oil-related Loonie went down with the crude oil benchmarks and failed to gain against its major counterparts.
USD/CAD is up by 23 pips (+0.18%) to 1.2956; CAD/JPY is down by 7 pips (-0.08%) to .7652; EUR/CAD is up by 11 pips (+0.07%) to 1.4978, and GBP/CAD is up by 22 pips (+0.13%) to 1.7069.
USD
More demand for U.S. equities means more demand for the dollar, which is why the Greenback continued to inch higher across the board.
USD/JPY is up by 10 pips (+0.09%) to 112.35; EUR/USD is down by 12 pips (-0.11%) to 1.1561; GBP/USD is down by 10 pips (-0.07%) to 1.3174, and USD/CHF is up by 8 pips (+0.08%) to .9914.
Watch Out For:
- EU Summit starts today. What can you expect from the event?
- 8:30 am GMT: U.K.’s CPI report. Read our mini event preview if you’re planning on trading the release!
- 8:30 am GMT: U.K.’s PPI input (0.9% expected, 0.5% previous)
- 8:30 am GMT: U.K.’s PPI output to remain at 0.2%?
- 8:30 am GMT: BOE’s FPC meeting minutes
- 8:30 am GMT: U.K.’s house price index (y/y) (2.9% expected, 3.1% previous)
- 9:00 am GMT: Euro Zone final headline and core CPI (y/y)