Morning Update – 07/04/2017 – by Arjun Lakhanpal

Morning all.. Wall St closed firmer (up 0.19%) before the launch on Syria by the US. Stocks in Asia were mixed, bouncing after early weakness on the Syria news. The Nikkei finally closing up 0.75% but USDJPY struggled as safe haven assets were in demand and the JPY strengthened. We saw a low at 110.12 at one point but the recovery in Asian stocks helped lift it off the lows.. The U.S. launched a cruise missile attack against Syria after accusing Bashar al-Assad’s regime of using poison gas to kill scores of civilians, an act that drew international condemnation and that President Donald Trump called “‘an affront to humanity.” US Sec of State Tillerson: Moscow was either complicit or incompetent as they failed to carry out 2013 agreement to secure Syrian chemical weapons; US has high degree of confidence sarin gas was used in chemical weapons attack; strike shows US prepared to take decisive action to respond to heinous attacks.. Trump/Xi meeting: Trump said he has developed a friendship with Chinese leader after initial meeting; expects to have a very, very great relationship with Xi in long term. The meeting continues today. JPY crosses were initially under pressure early in Asia but have also recovered. AUD is trading rather heavy and we heard of good selling of AUDJPY overnight. AUD low so far .7516. This morning we get French trade balance and Industrial production, Italian Retail sales and UK Industrial production, Construction output, Visible trade and GDP estimate from NIESR. Possibly quiet this morning as we wait for US Unemployment data later. Good luck.