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Market Opener – 15 Jan 2019
Local Markets Commentary
The Australian market opens today’s trade following broad risk-off overnight international equities sentiment, and price falls for several key commodities, and with new overnight data out of China.
Today’s trade also comes ahead of a scheduled UK parliament vote tonight on arrangements governing the UK’s planned split from the European Union (EU), the poll coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the launch of the euro.
The UK vote is anticipated as late as 6am AEDT tomorrow.
Post-ASX trade yesterday, China reported a 13% drop in December vehicle sales, following a 13.9% tumble in November.
In overnight commodities trade, oil continued to pull back.
Iron ore (China port 62% Fe fines) picked up the pace of Friday’s turn higher.
US (February) gold futures settled with another slight gain.
LME copper, nickel and aluminium traded lower.
The $A approached US72.0c again after having dropped to ~US71.80c early yesterday evening.
Locally today, a weekly consumer sentiment reading is due pre-trade.
Overseas Market Commentary
Major European and US equities markets fell on opening overnight and never looked like achieving session gains, in particular the FTSE 100 where a parliamentary UK-European (EU) split plans vote is due tonight.
Earlier yesterday, China had reported mixed December trade and foreign direct investment figures (FDI), and during European trade, a euro zone industrial production update disappointed.
China’s December trade surplus exceeded expectations but imports and exports dropped, following forecasts of a rise for each.
FDI had been expected to decline, however, and was reported to have grown by 3%.
China’s 2018 trade balance with the US notably came in 17% higher for the year, at $US323.32B. Exports to the US rose 11% and imports just 0.7%.
China’s 2018 total international exports rose 9.9%, following a 7.9% rise in 2017. Imports grew 15.8%, against 15.9%.
Overnight, the European Union (EU) formalised in a letter an assurance that temporary border arrangements to be in place (for Ireland, an EU member) when the UK splits from the EU were not permanent as detractors had claimed.
This came ahead of tonight’s crucial vote in the UK House of Commons, to approve, or otherwise, the proposed separation arrangements.
The vote is expected to trigger further dissent, and potentially an ultimate change of UK PM, and a new citizen vote on whether to separate the UK and EU.
Among overnight data releases, none of the scheduled US reports appeared, in part due to the US government services partial shutdown and additional government offices closed due to extreme winter weather across the mid-west and mid-Atlantic regions from late last week.
The euro zone’s November industrial production fell 1.7% for the month, following a 0.1% October rise. Year-on-year, output dropped 3.3% against October’s 1.2% gain.
The figures pushed the euro lower against the $US.
Tonight in the US, December producer prices and a New York region business activity index are due, together with several reports previously scheduled for release could also be published.
December quarter large-cap reporting season warms after several disappointing revised outlooks over the past two weeks.
Three US Fed regional presidents are scheduled to speak publicly.
Elsewhere, investors will also focus early on the UK parliament vote, scheduled for tonight, on arrangements for the planned late-March UK withdrawal from the EU.
European Central Bank (ECB) president Mario Draghi is also scheduled to speak publicly, as the euro zone commemorates the 20th anniversary of the launch of the euro.
Euro zone trade and Germany GDP updates could also prove more influential than the norm, due to international growth jitters.
Earnings will also feature.
Companies scheduled to report earnings include Delta Air, JPMorgan Chase, Spire Healthcare, United Continental, UnitedHealth and Wells Fargo.
In overnight corporate news, Newmont and Goldcorp confirmed they had agreed a $US10B merger.
Later, Citigroup reported December quarter revenue had fallen below expectations, to $US17.124B, on lower fixed-income and trading income.
The figure was little different than for the December quarter 2017, however.
Ford Motor claimed at the Detroit Motor Show that it could launch its first electric vehicles next year.
The Australian market opens today’s trade following broad risk-off overnight international equities sentiment, and price falls for several key commodities, and with new overnight data out of China.
Today’s trade also comes ahead of a scheduled UK parliament vote tonight on arrangements governing the UK’s planned split from the European Union (EU), the poll coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the launch of the euro.
The UK vote is anticipated as late as 6am AEDT tomorrow.
Post-ASX trade yesterday, China reported a 13% drop in December vehicle sales, following a 13.9% tumble in November.
In overnight commodities trade, oil continued to pull back.
Iron ore (China port 62% Fe fines) picked up the pace of Friday’s turn higher.
US (February) gold futures settled with another slight gain.
LME copper, nickel and aluminium traded lower.
The $A approached US72.0c again after having dropped to ~US71.80c early yesterday evening.
Locally today, a weekly consumer sentiment reading is due pre-trade.
Overseas Market Commentary
Major European and US equities markets fell on opening overnight and never looked like achieving session gains, in particular the FTSE 100 where a parliamentary UK-European (EU) split plans vote is due tonight.
Earlier yesterday, China had reported mixed December trade and foreign direct investment figures (FDI), and during European trade, a euro zone industrial production update disappointed.
China’s December trade surplus exceeded expectations but imports and exports dropped, following forecasts of a rise for each.
FDI had been expected to decline, however, and was reported to have grown by 3%.
China’s 2018 trade balance with the US notably came in 17% higher for the year, at $US323.32B. Exports to the US rose 11% and imports just 0.7%.
China’s 2018 total international exports rose 9.9%, following a 7.9% rise in 2017. Imports grew 15.8%, against 15.9%.
Overnight, the European Union (EU) formalised in a letter an assurance that temporary border arrangements to be in place (for Ireland, an EU member) when the UK splits from the EU were not permanent as detractors had claimed.
This came ahead of tonight’s crucial vote in the UK House of Commons, to approve, or otherwise, the proposed separation arrangements.
The vote is expected to trigger further dissent, and potentially an ultimate change of UK PM, and a new citizen vote on whether to separate the UK and EU.
Among overnight data releases, none of the scheduled US reports appeared, in part due to the US government services partial shutdown and additional government offices closed due to extreme winter weather across the mid-west and mid-Atlantic regions from late last week.
The euro zone’s November industrial production fell 1.7% for the month, following a 0.1% October rise. Year-on-year, output dropped 3.3% against October’s 1.2% gain.
The figures pushed the euro lower against the $US.
Tonight in the US, December producer prices and a New York region business activity index are due, together with several reports previously scheduled for release could also be published.
December quarter large-cap reporting season warms after several disappointing revised outlooks over the past two weeks.
Three US Fed regional presidents are scheduled to speak publicly.
Elsewhere, investors will also focus early on the UK parliament vote, scheduled for tonight, on arrangements for the planned late-March UK withdrawal from the EU.
European Central Bank (ECB) president Mario Draghi is also scheduled to speak publicly, as the euro zone commemorates the 20th anniversary of the launch of the euro.
Euro zone trade and Germany GDP updates could also prove more influential than the norm, due to international growth jitters.
Earnings will also feature.
Companies scheduled to report earnings include Delta Air, JPMorgan Chase, Spire Healthcare, United Continental, UnitedHealth and Wells Fargo.
In overnight corporate news, Newmont and Goldcorp confirmed they had agreed a $US10B merger.
Later, Citigroup reported December quarter revenue had fallen below expectations, to $US17.124B, on lower fixed-income and trading income.
The figure was little different than for the December quarter 2017, however.
Ford Motor claimed at the Detroit Motor Show that it could launch its first electric vehicles next year.