Global Markets: Asia-Pacific Markets and China’s Trade!

Global Markets Overview. The Asian stock markets showed varied performance on Tuesday, with the Nikkei index in Japan rising by 0.27%, while the Shanghai Composite fell by 0.25%, and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong experienced a significant decline of 1.80%. In contrast, Australia’s ASX index saw a minor increase of 0.03%.

Commodity prices exhibited slight downward movements, with gold losing 0.12% and reaching $1967.85, while silver decreased by 0.07% to $23.21. Brent oil and WTI oil also experienced declines of 0.56% and 0.54%, respectively, with prices settling at $84.86 and $81.49.

Regarding interest rates, the US 10-year yield stood at 4.014%, the UK 10-year yield at 4.415%, and the Germany 10-year yield at 2.480%.

Global Markets News & Data

Several key economic indicators were released, showing some deviations from expectations. The USD Consumer Credit m/m figure came in at 17.8B, exceeding the expected 13.8B. In the UK, the BRC Retail Sales Monitor y/y was 1.8%, lower than the projected 3.0%. Japan’s Average Cash Earnings y/y stood at 2.3%, missing the estimated 3.0%. Additionally, the House Spending y/y in Japan saw a decline of 4.2%, contrary to the anticipated -3.9%.

Markets Update

Asia-Pacific markets had mixed results on Tuesday, partly influenced by China’s trade data for July, which fell below expectations. China experienced a 14.5% year-on-year decline in exports and a 12.4% drop in imports, diverging from economists’ predictions of a 12.5% decrease in exports and a 5% reduction in imports. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index declined by 1.80%, while both the Shanghai Composite and Shenzhen Component indexes remained near the neutral point.

On the positive side, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index extended its winning streak to three days, rising by 0.27% and closing at 32,377.29. Japan’s Topix index also gained 0.34% to end at 2,291.73. Despite the positive stock market performance, Japan’s household spending remained in negative territory for the fourth consecutive month, with a 4.2% year-on-year decline in June.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index recorded a marginal climb, closing at 7,311.1. In contrast, South Korea’s Kospi index saw a decline of 0.26%, marking its fifth consecutive day of losses. The Kosdaq index also slipped by 0.65% to 892.34.

In the previous U.S. trading session, all three major indexes showed gains as investors digested strong earnings results. Approximately 85% of S&P 500 stocks had reported their quarterly results, with nearly 80% surpassing Wall Street’s predictions. The Dow increased by almost 1.2%, its best performance since June 15. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 closed with gains of 0.6% and 0.9%, respectively, breaking their four-day streak of losses.

Upcoming Events

Investors are keeping an eye on several upcoming events, including the CAD Trade Balance and the USD Trade Balance, both scheduled for 12:30 PM GMT. Later, at 2:00 PM GMT, the USD Final Wholesale Inventories m/m data will be released.

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