Morning Update – 01/08/16 – by Arjun Lakhanpal

Morning all.. Some wild swings in FX on Friday as month-end demand distorted but Wall St closed quietly with the S&P  more or less unchanged at the close. Asia also had a quiet session with the Nikkei closing up 0.4%. We saw Chinese mainland shares falling behind their regional peers as traders digested a slowdown in manufacturing activity in China. Australia’s ASX 200 was up 0.79 percent, with the energy, materials and gold sub-indexes registering more than 1 percent gains each. In China, the official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI), which tracks the health of large and state-owned enterprises, came in at 49.9 in July versus a Reuters poll that predicted a 50.0 reading, and compared to the 50.0 logged in June. The Caixin manufacturing PMI came in at 50.6 in July versus 48.6 in June. A print above 50 indicates expansion in activity. FX markets were subdued after a very poor weekly close in USDJPY but has drifted higher through the Asian session. GBP was quiet as we move into the week where the BoE meet to discuss rates and economic forecasts. EUR little changed. Oil is marginally firmer and DAX futures have opened strongly after a more positive outcome of European Bank stress tests. The Aussie will also be in focus this week, ahead of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) monetary policy meeting on Tuesday. This morning we get manufacturing PMI data for Sweden, Spain, France Germany and the UK. Good luck..