Today's Economic events
- Japan current account 1.64Tn. vs. 1.59Tn
- Japan Bank ending y/y 2.30% vs. 2.20% previously
- Japan average cash earnings y/y 0.10% vs. 0.70%
- Australia ANZ job advertisements m/m 1.0% vs. -0.10% previously
- Japan economy watchers sentiment 46.6 vs. 48.5
- Eurozone Sentix investor confidence 6.0 vs. 7.2
Coming up
- US Labor market conditions index
Following Friday's jobs report, the markets remained undecided with the US equities falling to rally despite the US Dollar managing to recover from the last week's strong sell-off. The Asian markets opened today with the Nikkei225 closing with 1.10% gains while the Shanghai composite closed with -0.61% losses.
Over the weekend, data released from China showed the Forex reserves falling to $3.2 trillion, a decline of nearly $100 billion in January ever since Chinese authorities started to defend the Yuan more vigorously. Earlier today, economic data from Japan was in the headlines with the average cash earnings, rising a meager 0.10% on a year over year basis, less than the 0.70% expected increase. With the earnings failing to rise, it is expected that inflation is likely to remain flat while questioning if the intended sales tax hike which was already postponed will ever see the light. The Yen initially dipped against the Greenback, with USDJPY touching intraday highs to 117.48 but by European trading session, the Yen rallied sharply sending USDJPY to lows of 116.12Yen.
The commodity risk currencies were also under pressure with $AUDUSD following through from Friday's declines. The Aussie is down -0.22% for the day, trading at 0.7055 at the time of writing. The NZDUSD is down -049% for the day, trading at $0.659
In Europe, lack of any economic news saw the markets trading based on the global theme. The US Dollar managed to gain ground against the Euro and the British Pound. EURUSD continued its retreat, with the Euro testing 1.108 intraday lows, following the declines from Friday. EURUSD is currently down -0.69% for the day. The GBPUSD also fell sharply, losing -0.97% for the day, trading at 1.436 at the time of writing.
European equity markets also fell as the Yen rallied. The German DAX 30 is down by -3.07% while the London FTSE100 lost -2.24% at the time of writing.
The NY trading session is looking to a weak open with the US equity futures already pointing to a very weak start. The Dow Jones Industrials is down by -1.43% while the S&P500 is down -1.48% ahead of the trading session. Economic data from the US is quiet with no major releases expected today.
On the commodity front, Gold prices continued to push higher as prices touched $1180, marking a strong rally. Gold is currently up 0.54% for the day. WTI Crude Oil prices are down -3.90% for the day, trading at $29.80 a barrel.
