The View From The Tower

Overnight Snapshot

 
The Day Ahead

0715hrs UK         JN NOJ Kuroda speaks in Tokyo
0930hrs UK         UK Balance of Trade (est £2.65bln vs previous £3bln)
0930hrs UK         UK Industrial Production (est 0.34%mom/2.83%yoy vs previous 1.3%/1.6%)
0930hrs UK         UK Manufacturing Production (est 0.08%mom/3.2%yoy vs previous 0.1%/2.7%)
1200hrs UK         EU The ECB’s Mario Draghi speaks in Frankfurt
1330hrs UK         US CPI (est 0.01%mom/2.38%yoy vs previous 0.2%/2.2%)
1400hrs UK         EU The ECB’s Hakkarainen speaks in Brussels
1530hrs UK         US DOE Crude Oil Inventories (est -1041K vs previous -4617K)
1530hrs UK         US DOE Gasoline Inventories (est -1093K vs previous -1116K)
1540hrs UK         EU The ECB’s Angeloni speaks in Brussels
1700hrs UK         SW The Riksbank Deputy Governor Cecilia Skingsley speaks in Stockholm
1900hrs UK         US Treasury Budget Statement (est -$190bln vs previous -$215bln)
1900hrs UK         US FOMC Minutes from March meeting
 
Earnings Today: Fastenal
                               
The Day So Far….

STOCKS: America’s leading equities climbed yesterday as investor worries over rising trade tensions between the US & China eased after the Chinese President Xi Jinping promised to cut import tariffs. The tech sector provided the biggest boost to the S&P500, with Facebook standing out with a 4.5% gain after Chief Exec Mark Zuckerberg began his testimony before congress and answered questions from politicians with a conciliatory tone. FB printed their best one day percentage gain in around two years to help the S&P move ahead 43.71 points to 2656.87, the Dow added 428.9 to 24408 whilst the Nasdaq100 added over 2% to end at 6615.873
Asia's major indices traded in mixed fashion on Wednesday, with little in the way of fresh catalysts apparent. - The Nikkei 225 finished the morning session 0.2% worse off and added further losses after the lunch time recess. - China-related stocks outperformed as the Hang Seng added 0.8% by lunch, while the mainland Shanghai Comp also added good gains in the early session before retreating a touch in the afternoon after PBoC Gov. Yi revealed that the HK-Shanghai stock quota will be increased from the start of May. - Australia's ASX 200 shed nearly 0.5% with a steady decline through most of the day as the heavyweight mining, industrial and financial sectors lagged. - US index futures gave back some of Tuesday's gains, with the e-mini S&P 12 points lower and the mini Dow 70 points lower.
US TSYS: The space has edged away from Tuesday's lows as worries surrounding geopolitical tensions re: Syria underpinned fixed income, with the shorter end of the Tsy curve managing some modest outperformance following Tuesday's
bear-flattening.
OIL: Crude edged lower as WTI & Brent both lost $0.20 or so to trade at $65.35 & $70.85 respectively. - Oil ran higher on Tuesday as risk sentiment improved, geopolitical tensions in the Gulf remained elevated and as a report suggested
that Saudi Arabia wants oil closer to $80 to support the country's budget & IPO of Saudi Aramco. - Iran's oil minister was more measured in the Asia-Pacific time zone as he suggested that "current oil prices are acceptable", and "all are comfortable with the current price".
GOLD: Gold stuck to a tight range, last trading at $1340/oz as geopolitical worry surrounding Syria supported the yellow metal overnight.
FOREX: Modest risk off flows were seen in Asia as the JPY lodged marginal gains, USDJPY last at 107.05. It is worth noting that there is $1.1bln worth of USDJPY 107.00 option expiries rolling off at today's 10AM NY cut. - PBoC Gov Yi stated that China will not devalue the yuan as part of the ongoing US-China trade spat, however, markets didn't react to the headlines. - AUDUSD has stuck to a tight range in Asia-Pacific dealing, after Tuesday's move higher, last ~0.7755, with additional support being drawn from a technical break higher in AUDJPY. NZDUSD
has moved back from session highs and last deals at 0.7350. Leveraged accounts had been adding to longs in the early part of the session, with talk of macro sellers located a fair way above market at 0.7420. There was also chatter of bids from Tokyo names around 0.7350. - EURUSD pared a chunk of its gains on Tuesday after the ECB distanced itself from comments made by Nowotny on Tuesday, although the cross has now erased the moved lower.

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