Morning Update – 09/02/16- by Arjun Lakhanpal

Morning all.. Another very worrying session on Wall St even though we did have a rally into the close.. That wasn’t enough as Asia (the bits that were open) got hit hard with the Nikkei closing down nearly 5.5%.. Banking shares again part of the problem as was the case in Europe during the day. European bank shares were hard hit with a -3.54% loss for the Stoxx 600 and the largest one-day fall since August 24th. Peripheral bourses took it hardest on the chin however. In Italy the FTSE MIB finished -4.69% while in Spain the IBEX closed -4.44%. Meanwhile in Greece the ASE collapsed -7.87% to the lowest level since 1990. EU bonds were also weak taking peripheral yields higher. Unsurprisingly safe-havens dominated the few asset classes which actually saw gains yesterday. Of particular note was the move for Gold which finished up +1.35% for its fourth consecutive daily gain of at least 1%, with the metal at one stage trading up through $1200/oz for the first time since June last year. Meanwhile core sovereign bond yields marched lower. 10y Bunds finished just shy of 8bps lower at 0.216% and the lowest since April last year when the yield closed at a record low 7.4bps at one stage. Oil is up slightly overnight and we are seeing a recovery in USDJPY as I type after a very weak session that saw a low of 114.21 posted. EUR made a high of 1.1238 but failed to hold the gains.. Not much data again today but this morning we get UK trade data.. Good luck..