Daily Insights Report 10/02/17

• 31 Mar 2017

10 Feb 2017

The three major stock indexes from the US all finished the day of trading on Thursday at record highs. This comes after the President announcements some that there would be major reforms coming to corporate taxes in the coming weeks. The result of these announcements show how anxious investors are for some clarity in the proposed plans of the President.

The Dollar saw some gains on Thursday, which was the first gain in the week. This comes after some support for the policies of Donald Trump’s showed promise. The world’s biggest foreign-exchange trading firm suggested that the Dollar would ultimately see gains this year, though it will go through a turbulent journey to get there.

Today there an important event will be Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit with the US President. There would be some volatility in markets which will set the tone for the trade relationship between the two countries.

Commodities

– Oil jumped 0.2% to $53.09 a barrel on early morning trading on Friday, and rose 1.3% on Thursday. The International Energy Agency (IEA) and OPEC are scheduled to post monthly production reports. These will be the first monthly report published since the supply deal last month.

– Gold fell 0.4% to reach $1,223.80 an ounce, after falling 1.1% on Thursday.

Australian Dollar (AUD)

Housing Finance

The Australian housing finance data likely showed a small expansion for the month of December of 1%. Housing markets in Sydney and Melbourne have shown strong growth, mainly from foreign investors. However, other cities in Australia have not been so lucky, as some have even been seeing declining rates of home ownership. Lending requirements have been made tighter, combined with higher interest rates this has made the housing boom in Sydney and Melbourne more sustainable for the long term.

Japanese Yen (JPY)

Industry Activity Indexes (December)

Tertiary activity in Japan is likely to have increased in the month of December to 0.7%. This is due to the weakening Yen, which must have improved business and consumer sentiment combined with added spending. Tertiary services offered relating to the exporting goods will enjoy growth in the coming months as the exports have been growing since the Yen has depreciated. These account for a fair portion of this data, so it may be misleading to interpret this data without context.

Euro (EUR)

Italy: Industrial Production (December)

Italy’s industrial production likely rose 0.7% for the month of December. Data that is published frequently showed an economy growing. Job creation has just picked up in the month of December. the added benefits of this will appear in the coming months. Markit PMI, for example, fell slightly in the month of January. However, an uptick in the labor market may fix this in the long run. Manufacturing confidence has improved as well, another possible fix for the decline in the Markit PMI.

Even though there are some fears in the Euro Zone surrounding Britain following a hard exit from the EU, Expansionary fiscal policy coming from the US may be an attractive gain for Italian exporters.