Global Market Snapshot: Asian Stocks, Commodity Prices, and Economic Updates. In the realm of international financial markets, we observed various movements and trends across different asset classes:
- Asian Stock Markets. The Nikkei index exhibited a rise of 0.80%, while the Shanghai Composite index experienced a modest increase of 0.10%. Conversely, the Hang Seng index dipped by 0.07%, and the ASX index from Australia suffered a decline of 0.78%.
- Commodities. The prices of precious metals were in a slight decline, with gold resting at $1961.25 (-0.23%) and silver at $23.81 (-0.23%). Meanwhile, the prices of crude oil exhibited a minor dip, with Brent Oil at $89.95 (-0.17%) and WTI Oil at $86.55 (-0.16%).
- Interest Rates. The global interest rate landscape revealed varying figures, including the US 10-year yield at 4.253%, the UK 10-year yield at 4.549%, and Germany’s 10-year yield at 2.615%.
Market News and Data
- Eurozone’s Producer Price Index (PPI) month-on-month (m/m) came in at -0.5%, aligning with expectations.
- In the United States, Factory Orders showed a decline of -2.1%, slightly better than the anticipated -2.5%.
- On Thursday, the Asia-Pacific markets exhibited a mixed performance, influenced by Saudi Arabia and Russia’s joint decision to prolong their voluntary oil production cuts until the end of the year.
Global Market Snapshot- Asian Stocks
Notably, Hong Kong-listed shares of Chinese property companies, with Evergrande at the forefront, experienced a significant surge, propelling Evergrande’s stock by over 70%. This surge boosted the Hang Seng Property Index by 4%. However, the broader Hang Seng index faced a minor decline of 0.07%, extending losses witnessed earlier in the week. Meanwhile, mainland Chinese markets also experienced a downturn, with the CSI 300 index dropping by 0.7%.
In the realm of energy markets, Brent crude futures reached a noteworthy milestone, crossing the $90 per barrel threshold for the first time since November. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures hovered around $86.69 per barrel, marking a 10-month high. Saudi Arabia’s announcement on Wednesday solidified its commitment to extend oil production cuts by 1 million barrels per day until December, while Russia echoed its pledge to reduce oil exports by 300,000 barrels per day.
Moving to other parts of Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index displayed a gain of 0.80%, mirroring the performance of the Topix index. In contrast, South Korea’s Kospi index witnessed a decline of 0.62%, although the Kosdaq managed to register a modest climb of 0.25%. Despite Australia’s second-quarter gross domestic product growth of 2.1% year-on-year, slightly surpassing economist expectations reported by Reuters, the S&P/ASX 200 index from Australia recorded a loss of 0.78%.
Turning our attention to the United States, the previous night witnessed all three major indexes posting losses due to concerns stemming from rising crude oil prices. Specifically, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined by 0.56%, the S&P 500 dipped by 0.42%, and the Nasdaq Composite experienced a marginal decline of 0.08%.
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