Morning Update – 22/11/2017 – by Arjun Lakhanpal

Morning all.. Wall St saw a strong rally and all indices made new record highs with the S&P closing up 0.65% and the NASDAQ rising by more than 1%. To a lesser degree we saw Asian stocks follow with the Nikkei up 0.48% and Shanghai up another 0.25%. The Hang Seng hit 30,000 at one point last night. Some believe the falling yields in the EU yesterday and the continuing fall in US long dated yields is now back driving stocks higher. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index broke through its 2007 peak, with shares higher from Tokyo to Sydney. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its forecast for U.S. stock gains in 2018, saying strong economic growth and tax reform will improve corporate earnings. The Korean won jumped to its highest in more than two years. The dollar maintained losses as the Treasury yield curve flattened further amid a global sovereign-bond rally. USDJPY hovers just above the bids suggested at 112.00. Oil headed for its highest close in more than two years. The Australian dollar briefly rose as high as 75.96 U.S. cents after data on completed construction work in the third quarter surprised on the upside, jumping 15.7 percent from the previous quarter, beating estimates of a 2.3 percent drop. We have the UK Budget today and later tonight the FOMC minutes from the last meeting. We have no data from Europe today but a busy US session for data including Durable goods data. Good luck.