ECB Policy Meeting and US Nonfarm Payrolls Today, Asian Markets Decline, US Dollar Gains Ground
July 3, 2014 6:39 am
Major European equity benchmarks are on the soft-side this morning, while Asian markets declined overnight; Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 0.1%, South Korea’s Kospi off 0.2%, the Hang Seng Index fell 0.1% while the Shanghai Composite Index climbed 0.2%. Investors will be looking ahead to the European Central Bank’s policy meeting and US nonfarm payrolls data, due later in the session.
The Australian market outperformed regional neighbours with Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200 gaining 0.6% after ASD fell against the US dollar to a level of US$0.938. This was after Reserve Bank of Australia governor Glenn Stevens said that the currency was “overvalued, and not just by a few cents”. His comments saw the Australian market shrug off lacklustre consumer spending data that showed retail sales contracted 0.5% in May month-on-month, their steepest monthly decline since March 2013.
In currency markets, the US dollar was higher against 10 out of 16 major peers and climbed 0.2% to 101.93 versus the Yen and 0.3% to 10.7882 versus the South African Rand. EUR/USD was little changed at $1.3660 ahead of the ECB monthly policy meeting. The ECB is not expected to take fresh policy action after cutting interest rates to record lows last month and slashing the deposit rate to below zero.
Oil prices continue to ease as the Iraqi government attempts to counteract the Islamist threat, with West Texas Intermediate crude oil dropping 0.3% to $104.16 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent crude fell 0.3% to $110.90 a barrel after rebels in eastern Libya said two oil ports they have held for a year, including the country’s biggest, were free to reopen.
In the US, equity markets are closing early to mark the Independence Day holiday tomorrow. That means the release of US nonfarm payrolls data has been pushed forward to early this afternoon, with estimates that 215,000 jobs were created last month after an increase of 217,000 in May, according to Bloomberg.
Major European equity benchmarks are on the soft-side this morning, while Asian markets declined overnight; Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 0.1%, South Korea’s Kospi off 0.2%, the Hang Seng Index fell 0.1% while the Shanghai Composite Index climbed 0.2%. Investors will be looking ahead to the European Central Bank’s policy meeting and US nonfarm payrolls data, due later in the session.
The Australian market outperformed regional neighbours with Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200 gaining 0.6% after ASD fell against the US dollar to a level of US$0.938. This was after Reserve Bank of Australia governor Glenn Stevens said that the currency was “overvalued, and not just by a few cents”. His comments saw the Australian market shrug off lacklustre consumer spending data that showed retail sales contracted 0.5% in May month-on-month, their steepest monthly decline since March 2013.
In currency markets, the US dollar was higher against 10 out of 16 major peers and climbed 0.2% to 101.93 versus the Yen and 0.3% to 10.7882 versus the South African Rand. EUR/USD was little changed at $1.3660 ahead of the ECB monthly policy meeting. The ECB is not expected to take fresh policy action after cutting interest rates to record lows last month and slashing the deposit rate to below zero.
Oil prices continue to ease as the Iraqi government attempts to counteract the Islamist threat, with West Texas Intermediate crude oil dropping 0.3% to $104.16 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent crude fell 0.3% to $110.90 a barrel after rebels in eastern Libya said two oil ports they have held for a year, including the country’s biggest, were free to reopen.
In the US, equity markets are closing early to mark the Independence Day holiday tomorrow. That means the release of US nonfarm payrolls data has been pushed forward to early this afternoon, with estimates that 215,000 jobs were created last month after an increase of 217,000 in May, according to Bloomberg.
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