Morning Update – 08/08/2017 – by Arjun Lakhanpal

Morning all.. Wall St had a quiet session but stocks closed in the green with the Dow making a record high. The S&P closed up 0.16%. In Asia stocks were lower with the Nikkei closing down 0.39% in another quiet session.  Oil extended losses. It’s been a relatively quiet start to the week for markets ahead of Friday’s U.S. inflation data that may give clues on the path of U.S. monetary policy. Stocks in South Korea and Australia also declined following a muted U.S. session. The dollar fell and West Texas Intermediate crude sat below $50 a barrel. Two Federal Reserve officials said soft U.S. inflation was a problem as they played down the risk of market disruption when the central bank starts shrinking its balance sheet. The comments on Monday by St. Louis Fed President James Bullard and Minneapolis’s Neel Kashkari marry with expectations that officials will keep interest rates on hold when they meet next month and announce the start of a gradual process to trim holdings of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities. Geopolitics have also been thrust back into the spotlight. North Korea condemned the latest round of United Nations sanctions and rebuffed any negotiations over its nuclear program until the U.S. ceases “hostile” policies. The latest economic data out of China pointed to steady global demand. While exports missed economists’ estimates, rising 11.2 percent in July in yuan terms, demand for Chinese goods held up in the face of escalating tensions with the U.S. FX markets very quiet. The Aussie was little changed at 79.15 U.S. cents. It got a boost to the session’s high after July business confidence increased, according to a National Australia Bank report. This morning we just get French Trade data early.. Good luck..