Many Markets Still Closed
December 26, 2019
Extended Christmas holidays known in many countries as Boxing Day have kept market action to a minimum.
- The United States is an exception. U.S. share prices opened modestly higher.
- Share prices rose 0.9% in China, 0.6% in Japan, 0.4% in South Korea and Turkey but fell 0.7% in India.
- The dollar rose overnight by 0.4% against the yen and 0.1% relative to the yuan. Alternatively, the dollar is unchanged versus the euro, loonie and Swiss franc and down 0.2% vis-a-vis the kiwi and 0.1% against the peso, Australian dollar and sterling.
- The price of gold strengthened by a further 0.6% and is above $1,510 per ounce, while WTI oil climbed even more sharply to a 3-week high.
- The 10-year Japanese JGB yield climbed a basis point to -0.03%. The 10-year Treasury yield is steady.
Closed markets today include those in Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Greece, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Cyprus, Russia, South Africa and Nigeria.
Japanese housing starts (-12.7%, most in 22 months) and construction orders (-1.2%, a 2-month low after a 6.4% rise the month before) each recorded on-year declines in November.
Industrial production in Singapore posted drops in November of 9.4% on month and 9.3% on year. It was the biggest 12-month rate of decline in 46 months.
Turkish capacity utilization slid to a 2-month low of 77.0% in December from a 2019 high of 77.2% in November.
New U.S. jobless insurance claims last week fell 13k to 222k, but their four-week average of 228k was above the average of 219.75k per week in the previous four weeks through November 23rd.
Copyright 2019, Larry Greenberg. All rights reserved. No secondary distribution without express permission.
Tags: Japanese housing starts, U.S. jobless insurance claims
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