Morning Update – 26/10/15 – 07:35:35

Morning all .. It was a strong week for equities last week and the rate cut from China helped. In Asia we saw further gains but not as much as some thought. The Nikkei closed up 0.65% with HK actually down 0.18%.. S&P futures are nearly 5 points lower overnight. USDJPY fell from a high of 121.50 as stocks failed to push higher as option selling capped the move. The dollar is generally lower with EUR higher but Cable remains soft. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said weighing the effect of the slowing global economy will be key to the US central bank’s decision on when to raise interest rates. As reported on Bloomberg, Bernanke said that Fed Chair Janet Yellen has to decide if there is enough domestic momentum to keep the US moving forward despite the drags from abroad. He added that the world’s largest economy has recently shown evidence that it is pretty strong, notably in housing, auto sales and consumer spending. According to Bloomberg, the SNB will analyze the impact of euro-area quantitative easing, given the franc is “overvalued,” Vice President Fritz Zurbruegg said. “At our monetary policy assessment in December we’ll analyze all developments, both in Switzerland and abroad,” Zurbruegg told in a newspaper interview. “Of course that’ll include an assessment of the ECB’s monetary policy measures and their possible effects on Switzerland.” “At its current level the franc remains markedly overvalued,” Zurbruegg said. “The depreciation has been positive, but we expect further development in this direction.” “You can’t tell in advance how low you can go with negative rates,” he said. “Rates will stay low as long as it is necessary for monetary policy.” This morning we get Spanish PPI, German IFO and UK mortgage data .. Good luck..