The week may have started with fanfare for equities across much of the world as markets toasted the apparent progress for China-US trade at the weekend’s G20 summit. However upside is already looking to be short lived after Asian markets reversed overnight and Japan’s Nikkei tumbled dramatically.
The yen has seen some notable appreciation off the back of inflows as a result of falling US Treasury yields, with profit taking off Monday’s gains further compounding downside in Tokyo. Questions were also raised once again yesterday over the Federal Reserve’s ability to ease off its policy tightening agenda, after the ISM Manufacturing print for November unexpectedly spiked higher.
US index futures may be off their overnight lows, but we’re still eyeing some significant losses on Wall Street at the opening bell. Economic data is relatively thin on the ground and major underlying markets will also be closed for tomorrow’s day of mourning following the death of former US President George Bush at the weekend.
Fresh direction could therefore prove difficult to find in the near term, although further declines in US treasuries could help encourage at least some of that cash back into stocks.
Ahead of the open we’re calling the Dow down 151 at 25675 and the S&P 500 down 15 at 2775.