CURRENCY MARKET WRAP
As of Tue Oct 8th, Singapore Time zone UTC+8
U.S. Dollar Index, +0.20%, 98.98
USDJPY, +0.46%, $107.25
EURUSD, -0.11%, $1.0971
GBPUSD, -0.39%, $1.2287
USDCAD, -0.02%, $1.3304
AUDUSD, -0.47%, $0.6733
NZDUSD, -0.40%, $0.6291
Risk Assets retreated following a Bloomberg report that suggested China was not interested in a complete trade deal at this time, then stabalized after NEC Director Larry Kudlow said comments out of Beijing have been more positive. Throw in some conflicting tweets from a Fox Business reporter, and it was enough to inject more gyrations and confusion into the market.
U.S. Treasuries finished firmly lower, driving yields higher across the curve. The 2-yr yield increased seven basis points to 1.46%, and the 10-yr yield increased four basis points to 1.55%. The U.S. Dollar Index increased 0.2% to 98.98. WTI crude gave up an intraday gain to finish unchanged at $52.79/bbl.
Turkish warplanes have reportedly begun bombing Kurdish positions in Syria, a day after the U.S. announced it was pulling troops from the region. The bombings started late on Monday, with Turkish Air Force jets targeting the Semelka Border Crossing at the Iraq border in northeast Syria, local media reported. Turkey has two main goals in northeast Syria: to drive the Kurdish YPG militia which it deems a security threat away from its border, and to create a space inside Syria where 2 million Syria refugees currently hosted in Turkey can be settled. It had been pushing the United States to jointly establish a “safe zone” extending 20 miles (32 km) into Syrian territory, but repeatedly warned it could take unilateral military action after accusing Washington of dragging its feet. President Tayyip Erdogan has recently talked about pushing even deeper into Syria, beyond the proposed “safe zone” region to the cities of Raqqa and Deir al-Zor, in order to allow still more refugees to return to Syria.
STOCK MARKET WRAP
S&P500, -0.45%, 2,938.79
Nasdaq, -0.33%, 7,956.29
Nikkei Futures, +0.22%, 21,482.5
S&P 500 declined 0.45% on Monday in a session replete with trade speculation and indecision. Ten of the 11 S&P 500 sectors finished lower amid relatively light trading volume. The energy sector (-0.9%) was today’s laggard, while the communication services sector (+0.04%) finished fractionally higher.
In corporate news, Silicon Motion (SIMO 38.30, +2.45, +6.8%) raised its Q3 revenue guidance, signaling that healthy demand for Apple’s (AAPL 227.06, +0.05, unch) iPhone 11 is funneling through the supply chain. Silicon Motion was one of the few gainers in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (-0.7%).
Elsewhere, PG&E (PCG 11.50, +0.63, +5.8%) outperformed following a report that indicated wildfire claims will be capped at $13.5 billion. Uber (UBER 30.37, +0.70, +2.4%) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup on improving risk vs reward. Labor talks between General Motors (GM 34.75, -0.16, -0.5%) and the UAW were said to have taken a “turn for the worse” over the weekend.