Morning Update – 11/09/2017 – by Arjun Lakhanpal

Morning all..Wall St closed quietly mixed on Friday with the S&P down 0.15% and the Dow up 0.06% as many refused to hold much risk into the weekend on fears that N. Korea may be playing with fireworks again. The relief in Asia when nothing untoward took place was palpable with the Nikkei rising 1.3% helped by a healthy bounce in USDJPY and US yields. USD strengthened against most of its G10 peers after hurricane Irma (which was expected to make US landfall as a category 5 storm) was re-categorise to a category 4 as it swept through Miami, it has since reduced to a category 2 storm overnight. NZDUSD marginally weakened 0.1% after august card spending retail fell for the 4th consecutive month. The NZ institute of Economic research has also lowered its inflation forecast for 2017-18 to 1.1% from 1.5% and its GDP forecast from 3.1% to 2.9% weighing in on the weaker NZD. In other asset classes the 10-year US treasury yield was up 4.8bps after hitting a 9-month low on Friday and Brent crude rose 0.4% retracing back from Friday’s 1.3% loss amid concerns Irma would disrupt oil demand. In China, USDCNH made gains of 0.4% after Chinese policy makers lifted rules that made betting against the currency expensive. China’s August CPI came in stronger-than-expected rising rose 1.8% on the year and the CNY reference rate was fixed to its strongest for the 11th consecutive day in a row. This morning we get very little data of note and none that will impact.. Good luck