Morning Update – 17/08/2017 – by Arjun Lakhanpal

Morning all.. Wall St closed marginally higher after the FOMC minutes were released which showed continuing concerns over the lack of inflation and bond yields fell, taking the dollar with them. S&P closed up 0.14% and NASDAQ 0.19%. The Fed left the door open to a September announcement on the normalisation of the balance sheet and the inflation outlook remains subdued. USDJPY made a low of 109.66 and EUR was back up close to 1.1800 at one point. US 10yr yields dipped to 2.225%. Elsewhere in Oz, lower unemployment figures but an unexpected fall in full-time employment numbers gave AUD some strength reaching gains of 0.2% and trading at highs of 0.7950. JPY pushed back below 110 firming 0.3% after Japan trade figures. Trumps business advisory group collapsed as CEO’s departed and Trump finally called an end to it which is rather damaging to his reputation, especially among business groups. South Korean President Moon affirmed nothing would happen to North Korea without their approval, their equity index the Kopsi rose another 0.5%. NAFTA negotiations have started in a tense atmosphere as Canada and Mexico offered thinly-veiled rebukes of Donald Trump’s plans to rewrite NAFTA on Wednesday. The US declared the pact had “failed” for “countless Americans”. Britain and the European Union may have to delay talks on their post-Brexit relationship until December as sufficient progress may not be made on the first stage of talks, Sky News cited unidentified British sources as saying. EURGBP has recovered all the losses seen after recent sources comments on the Draghi speech due at Jackson Hole later this month.. Oil is unchanged in Asia.. This morning we get UK retail sales and also EU CPI & Trade data so a potentially busy morning. Good luck…