CURRENCY MARKET WRAP
As of Thu Oct 10th, Singapore Time zone UTC+8
U.S. Dollar Index, -0.02%, 99.11
USDJPY, +0.03%, $107.11
EURUSD, +0.28%, $1.0987
GBPUSD, -0.05%, $1.2213
USDCAD, +0.13%, $1.3342
AUDUSD, -0.23%, $0.6714
NZDUSD, -0.25%, $0.6282
U.S. Wholesale inventories increased 0.2% m/m in August (consensus +0.4%), on top of an unrevised 0.2% increase in July. Wholesale sales were flat in August after increasing 0.2% in July. It could prove difficult for wholesalers to gain pricing power given that inventory growth remains well ahead of sales growth on a yr/yr basis. August Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed that job openings declined to 7.051 million from a revised 7.174 million in July (from 7.217 million).
In trade, China is still open to reaching a partial deal with the US, an official with direct knowledge of the talks said, signalling that Beijing is focused on limiting the damage to the world’s second-largest economy. The reported terms included China agreeing to buy more agricultural products from the U.S. in exchange for no further tariff increases on goods imported from China. Bloomberg received this information from an unnamed official with “direct knowledge of the talks,” and the Financial Times followed up with news that Beijing could increase its soybean purchases by 10 million tons annually.
U.S. Treasuries finished the session on a lower note. The 2-yr yield increased four basis points to 1.46%, and the 10-yr yield increased five basis points to 1.59%. The U.S. Dollar Index finished little changed at 99.11. WTI crude declined 0.1% (-$0.03) to $52.63/bbl.
STOCK MARKET WRAP
S&P500, +0.91%, 2,919.40
Nasdaq, +1.02%, 7,903.74
Nikkei Futures, -1.14%, 21,372.5
S&P 500 gained 0.91% on Wednesday after a report indicating China’s willingness to reach a partial trade deal seemingly improved investor sentiment.
Despite the caveat that structural trade issues were reportedly not in China’s interest to resolve this week, all 11 S&P 500 sectors were undeterred for most of the day. The information technology sector (+1.5%) led all sectors in gains, with the other ten groups rising between 0.3% (real estate) and 1.1% (energy).