Talking Points:
- Asian stocks suffered as Wall Street did the session before
- Tech names remain pressured by rotation away from them, especially in China and Taiwan
- Australian growth missed forecasts but remained at least relatively strong
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Asian stocks tracked other global indexes lower Wednesday. In the US Tuesday the S&P 500 put in its first three-day losing streak since August as rising Brexit worries and the possibility of a US government shutdown weighed on sentiment, even as massive US tax reform continues its progress through Congress.
The Nikkei 225 ended down 1.97%, with the ASX 2000 down 0.4%. Mining stocks bore the brunt of 'risk off' trading. Chinese stocks were hammered too, both in the mainland and in Hong Kong where declines easily surpassed 1%. Tech stocks have seen rotation away from them and into financial names and that process continued Wednesday. However Bitcoin’s rise contuinues to defy all doubters with the crypto currency piercing $12,000 for the first time.
In the traditional currency space the US Dollar was broadly weaker despite this week’s signs of progress on tax reform. Now the Federal budget is under scrutiny again amid hopes that the specter of shutdown can once again be headed off. The Australian Dollar was knocked by a set of official growth figures from its home country which came in quite strongly but still managed to miss elevated market expectations.
Gold prices eased with the US Dollar while crude oil prices took a knock from the latest news of US stock levels. However the prospect of ongoing supply cuts from mainstream producers has limited falls.
The rest of the session promises Purchasing Managers Index data from around Europe, German factory orders numbers and this month’s Swiss Consumer Price Index. From the US investors can look forward to the Automated Data Processing employment roundup and news of oil inventory levels.
--- Written by David Cottle, DailyFX Research
Contact and follow David on Twitter: @DavidCottleFX
