Japan Machinery Orders Fall 19.5% Year-on-Year, Brent Crude Prices Decline for 9th Day in a Row
July 10, 2014 6:22 am
European equity markets have inched higher so far on Thursday thanks to a better Wednesday finish on Wall Street and an upbeat session in Asia except for Japan. US Fed meeting minutes were in line with expectations, containing no major surprises other than offering a firmer date as to when the tapering of the bond-buying programme will come to an end; in October, providing the economy stays on track. On the whole, the minutes showed policy makers are concerned that investors are becoming too complacent over the economic outlook and as a result are taking risks. Nonetheless, US stock markets closed at record highs in the previous session.
Meanwhile, the MSCI Asia Pacific excluding Japan Index added 0.4% while US stock futures were broadly flat. Traders in Europe were focussed on two major events for markets during Thursday’s session; the policy meeting of the Bank of England and the US weekly jobless claims report.
The BOE’s policy meeting is not expected to signal any immediate changes, but markets are certainly looking for more concrete messages regarding interest rate hikes, especially since the BOE has sent mixed signals in recent weeks.
Over in Asia, data showed Chinese exports rose a less-than-forecast 7.2% in June, while the trade surplus narrowed from $35.9bn in May to $31.6bn in June. Though exports still fell slightly short of forecasts, export momentum in China does show a pickup in pace, which was seen as a big positive.
It was a different story in Japan where stocks declined overnight with the Topix index falling to 0.9%, extending its drop into a fourth day after a report showed orders of machinery in May fell by a staggeringly huge 19.5% from a year earlier. That was worse than expectations of 10.1% from a year earlier – the yen rose on the back of the poor data.
Over in Indonesia, the Jakarta Composite rose nearly 2% after markets reopened following Wednesday’s presidential elections. Both Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, and his opponent Prabowo Subianto claimed victory in the presidential vote. Jokowi had about a five percentage point lead in the poll, according to unofficial counts from two survey companies that declared him the winner. Official results aren’t due for about two weeks.
In energy markets, oil prices continue to decline with WTI crude at around $101.80. Brent crude meanwhile further eased back 0.1% to $108.13 a barrel in its ninth day of declines, the longest consecutive retreat since 2010.
European equity markets have inched higher so far on Thursday thanks to a better Wednesday finish on Wall Street and an upbeat session in Asia except for Japan. US Fed meeting minutes were in line with expectations, containing no major surprises other than offering a firmer date as to when the tapering of the bond-buying programme will come to an end; in October, providing the economy stays on track. On the whole, the minutes showed policy makers are concerned that investors are becoming too complacent over the economic outlook and as a result are taking risks. Nonetheless, US stock markets closed at record highs in the previous session.
Meanwhile, the MSCI Asia Pacific excluding Japan Index added 0.4% while US stock futures were broadly flat. Traders in Europe were focussed on two major events for markets during Thursday’s session; the policy meeting of the Bank of England and the US weekly jobless claims report.
The BOE’s policy meeting is not expected to signal any immediate changes, but markets are certainly looking for more concrete messages regarding interest rate hikes, especially since the BOE has sent mixed signals in recent weeks.
Over in Asia, data showed Chinese exports rose a less-than-forecast 7.2% in June, while the trade surplus narrowed from $35.9bn in May to $31.6bn in June. Though exports still fell slightly short of forecasts, export momentum in China does show a pickup in pace, which was seen as a big positive.
It was a different story in Japan where stocks declined overnight with the Topix index falling to 0.9%, extending its drop into a fourth day after a report showed orders of machinery in May fell by a staggeringly huge 19.5% from a year earlier. That was worse than expectations of 10.1% from a year earlier – the yen rose on the back of the poor data.
Over in Indonesia, the Jakarta Composite rose nearly 2% after markets reopened following Wednesday’s presidential elections. Both Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, and his opponent Prabowo Subianto claimed victory in the presidential vote. Jokowi had about a five percentage point lead in the poll, according to unofficial counts from two survey companies that declared him the winner. Official results aren’t due for about two weeks.
In energy markets, oil prices continue to decline with WTI crude at around $101.80. Brent crude meanwhile further eased back 0.1% to $108.13 a barrel in its ninth day of declines, the longest consecutive retreat since 2010.
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