Asian indices were under selling pressure today after President Trump announced the return of tariffs to steel imports from Brazil and Argentina while threatened to impose tariffs to French products as a retaliation of French government taxes on U.S tech companies.
The Nikkei 225 index finished 0.64% lower at 23,379. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that Japan is in the final stages of preparing an economic stimulus package. The Hang Seng is 0.20% lower at 26,391, the Singapore Straits Times index ended 0.65% lower at 3,166. The Shangai Composite index recovered earlier losses and turned higher adding 0.31% at 2,884.
Reserve Bank of Australia Keeps Rates Unchanged
The Reserve Bank of Australia left the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0.75% as expected by markets. RBA pointed out that will continue to monitor the economic developments due to the long period in the transmission of monetary policy to the real economy. Regarding the global outlook RBA said that now risks have lessened recently. Economists now predict a 70% chance that RBA will cut interest rates in February.
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AUDUSD added over 30 pips after the RBA decision and as of writing the pair is gaining 0.59% at 0.6856 making fresh three week highs. The ASX 200 finished 2.2% lower at 6,712.
On the data front, the Australia Current Account Balance came in at 7.9B above forecasts of 6.3B in 3Q.
European Indices in Positive Foot
European stock indices started the day higher DAX is adding 0.74% at 13,064 the CAC 40 index is 0.18% higher at 5,796 while the FTSE 100 trading 0.41% lower at 7,255. In the latest poll Conservatives increased their lead to 12% over Labour.
In commodities markets crude oil trades higher for second straight day supported by stronger manufacturing PMI’s from China and Europe. On the other hand the ISM manufacturing came bellow expectations and sent the dollar index and Wall Street lower.
Gold is trading slightly higher during the European trading session at $1,464 but remains capped from the resistance at 1,465.
AUDUSD Outperforms
In forex markets AUDUSD is the outperformer today after the RBA decision. EURUSD trading 0.01% lower at 1.1077, while the GBPUSD adds 0.28% at 1.2975 after the UK construction PMI increased to 45.3 in November. USDJPY trades 0.04% higher at 109.01.
In our economic calendar we have the Eurozone November PPI figures due at 10:00GMT, and latter on the day the ISM-NY Business Conditions Index and ISM-NY Current Business Conditions.More content
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