Morning Update – 10/07/2017 – by Arjun Lakhanpal

Morning all.. Wall St closed firmer after rather mixed data on Friday with the S&P up 0.64% and the NASDAQ up jut over 1% and some of this optimism has spilled into Asian markets. The Nikkei closing up 0.88% and HK up almost 1%. Chinese shares were lower even though producer prices showed robust demand in Asia’s largest economy. The yen was near a two-month low as investors assessed the latest poor approval ratings for Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, while Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said the economy was turning toward moderate expansion and reiterated that policy could be adjusted as needed. Oil is unchanged. FX markets were kept in tight ranges as we have a busy end to the week this week. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s testimony before Congress will be in focus later this week as investors look for guidance of when the U.S. central bank could start reducing its balance sheet. Other Fed speakers include Lael Brainard, while there’s plenty of data releases. Retail sales, industrial output and business inventories may sway GDP forecasts and CPI could signal if disinflation is intensifying.The Group-of-20 summit made little headway on dominant foreign policy issues such as North Korea’s escalation of tensions. Meetings between U.S. President Donald Trump and the leaders of South Korea, Japan and China ended without a clear consensus about how to curb North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. On the data front China June CPI lower: 1.5% vs 1.6% cons; -0.2% m/m vs -0.1% cons -China June PPI in-line: 5.5%. Japan May Machine Orders missed: -3.6% m/m vs +1.7% cons; +0.6% y/y vs +7.7% cons. This morning in Europe we get Norwegian CPI and Sedish unemployment data. Apart from that it looks like being a quiet one.. Good luck.