Talking Points:
- Asian stocks traded mostly lower, although higher energy prices kept the ASX 200 in the green.
- Chinese loan data beat forecasts, Australian business confidence and housing numbers came up short
- Brent crude topped $65 for the first time since 2015 on a UK pipeline outage.
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Most Asian stocks drifted lower Tuesday despite a Wall Street lead which saw another record closing high for the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
The Nikkei 225 was down 0.3%. There were some gains for financial stocks but they couldn't gloss over a more mixed performance from tech and autos. The Kospi edged down too, wirh retailers weighing. A rise in crude oil prices also helped the ASX 0.35% into the green but Chinese stocks lost ground.
Brent crude topped $65 per barrel for the first time since 2015 as the shutdown of the UK’s Forties pipeline hit supply.
The day's regional economic data were mixed. China’s new yuan loans came in comfortably ahead of forecasts for November, hitting 1.12 trillion yuan ($169 billion). The markets had only been looking for 800 billion beforehand. However Australia’s business confidence and housing numbers missed forecasts and gave the Aussie Dollar a knock.
The US Dollar held firm as investors looked to this Wednesday, which will bring 2017’s final monetary policy decision from the Federal Reserve. An interest-rate hike is held to be almost nailed down, but the big question would then by the Fed’s take on how many more might follow it. The New Zealand Dollar continued to gain as markets digested Monday’s news that Adrian Orr of the country’s superannuation fund will take over at the helm of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand next year.
Gold languished near five month lows as investors looked to rising US yields.
Still to come on Tuesday’s data schedule are November’s UK Consumer Price Index and Germany’s ZEW survey.
--- Written by David Cottle, DailyFX Research
Contact and follow David on Twitter: @DavidCottleFX
