Better Investor Mood Persisting
September 11, 2019
Share prices advanced overnight by 1.8% in Hong Kong, 1.6% in Singapore, 1.0% in Japan, 0.8% in South Korea, 0.7% in Indonesia and 0.4% in India and Australia. China, down 0.4%, was an exception to this upward trend. Stock markets in Europe so far show gains of 0.9% in the U.K., 0.7% in Germany, 0.4% in Italy and 0.3% in France and Switzerland.
The 10-year British gilt and Japanese JGB yields are respectively 3 and 2 basis points firmer.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil climbed 1.2%, while gold and the dollar are little changed.
Optimism persists about prospects for U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators reaching a deal.
A Scottish court’s ruling that the five-week suspension of British parliament is unlawful will be appealed, so there is no immediate apparent impact.
President Trump fired John Bolton, his third national security adviser who had disagreed with Trump’s handling of North Korea, Afghanistan and Iran.
The quarterly survey of Japanese corporate sentiment by the Ministry of Finance revealed an improvement among large firms during the summer but also expectations that the sentiment of non-manufacturers is likely to be weaker than now by yearend.
Australian consumer confidence fell 1.7% in September to its second lowest level of 2019 according to the Westpac-MI index.
Business sentiment in South Africa according to the Sacci index dropped 2.9 index points in August to a 34-year low.
South Korean unemployment dropped 0.9 percentage points in July to 3.1%, its low so far this year, but the economy’s index of leading economic indicators declined 0.3% that month on top of a 0.6% slide in June.
Spanish industrial production declined for the second month in a rose in July, which halved its 12-month rate of increase to a 4-month low of 0.8%.
On-year growth in Malaysian industrial production slowed to a 43-month low of 1.2% in July.
Portuguese CPI inflation of -0.1% last month was negative for a second straight time, and Romanian CPI inflation eased 0.2 percentage points to 3.9%.
Policymakers at the National Bank of Poland are reviewing their monetary policy today.
EU leaders are meeting in Helsinki to discuss climate change action and the resilience of the financial sector to hybrid threats. EU finance ministers will take the opportunity to meet separately in Helsinki as well.
Today’s 18th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks on the United States is a much more poignant event than the equivalent anniversary in 1959 of the Pearl Harbor attacks. The difference of those two days of U.S. infamy is that World War II by 1959 had been long over and resolved by the unconditional surrender of the axis powers. In contrast, American troops remain in Afghanistan, and peace in the Middle East remains as elusive as ever.
U.S. producer prices and Canadian capacity utilization data will be reported later today.
Copyright 2019, Larry Greenberg. All rights reserved. No secondary distribution without express permission.
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