Asia
After recent strong moves to the upside, Asia-Pacific markets had a rather subdued session in terms of price moves, especially with modest moves on Wall Street on Wednesday. A rising US Treasury yield has introduced a note of caution to equity investing in recent days.
China struck a conciliatory tone, at least with trading partners other than the United States. Beijing said that tariffs would be lowered for the majority of its trading partners, and that it was not going to pursue a currency war in response to trade disputes. These messages chime with pronouncements from China earlier this week that it is “open for business” despite the obvious distraction from the ongoing tit-for-tat US/China dispute. Both the Shenzhen and Shanghai indices dipped slightly on the day, with the latter holding above the 2,700 points level.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng inched higher, making percentage moves in line with those seen on Wall Street overnight.
Japanese inflation is due on Friday morning local time.
Europe
European exchanges were higher again as the global mood of cautious optimism this week continued. The FTSE 100 was stuck around the 7,330 points level as a rising pound, helped by upbeat retail sales figures, held back further gains. The FTSE 250 was virtually unchanged.
Aston Martin announced that its IPO, which launches in early October, would be price between the £17.50 and £22.50 level, implying a market capitalisation of around £5 billion.
The battle to buy Sky (SKY) is expected to reach a conclusion in the coming days as tomorrow’s takeover deadline approaches – investors will no doubt be relieved that the process is coming to an end after a near-two year tussle for the UK broadcaster.
North America
Semiconductor firm Micron (MU) is one of the biggest companies on the New York Stock Exchange to report numbers on Thursday.
Today’s economics includes existing home sales, weekly initial jobless claims to 15 September and continuing claims to 8 September.
Canadian inflation data for August is due on Friday, with the cost of living – as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) – expected to have dropped from 3% to 2.8%.
Looking ahead to next week, the Federal Reserve is still on track to make its third interest rate rise of the year with a quarter point hike.
:quality(80)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/morningstar/WDFTRL6URNGHXPS3HJKPTTEHHU.png)
:quality(80)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/morningstar/SJ4TPTNUHRHMDOLNIMADKA7WW4.jpg)
:quality(80)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/morningstar/AY4IODDAJRDHVPZMQKMI3BD5JE.png)
