Morning Update – 01/12/2017 – by Arjun Lakhanpal

Morning all.. Wall St had a very strong session with broad gains across the board. The S&P closed up 0.82% with the Dow up 1.4% and even the NASDAQ managed a 0.73% gain. Financial and retailers leading the gains with a strong transport index rally. In Asia things were a little more mixed as HK and Shanghai fell again but the Nikkei managed a rise of 0.4% after the tax bill votes were shifted to today. The dollar headed for its first weekly gain in four weeks ahead of the tax vote and held gains in USDJPY even after the vote ran into some stumbling blocks. This on the back of the US 10yr yield holding gains overnight. Markets have become sensitive to any progress on U.S. tax reform that would give yet another impetus to an equity bull run into the final weeks of the year that has been fueled by optimism on earnings and economic growth throughout 2017. Japan’s inflation sped up in October, though price rises are still less than half the central bank’s 2 percent target. In South Korea, inflation unexpectedly slowed to a one-year low and economic growth was slightly stronger than the central bank’s initial estimate. China’s Caixin manufacturing PMI slid to 50.8 from 51 in November. Oil posted its longest streak of monthly gains since early 2016 after an OPEC-led coalition of major crude producers followed through on a long-awaited extension of supply cuts. This Morning we get UK, EU, Swedish and Norway manufacturing PMI and a final look at PMI from France and Germany. Good luck..