Morning Update – 13/03/16 – by Arjun Lakhanpal

Morning all.. Wall St had a solid session with the S&P closing up almost 1% as oil rallied on suggestions of an accord between Saudi and Russia to freeze oil production. Kremlin: there is hope for an oil freeze deal irrespective of Iran’s position; Energy Min Novak has briefed Putin on the latest Saudi talks. This carried into the Asian session even though oil dipped with the Nikkei closing up over 2.5% with China up 2.2% after stronger trade data. China March exports & imports above expectations; exports +11.5% vs +10% cons; imports -7.6% vs -10% cons.. This a possible sign that China is recovering and this helped iron ore and other commodities rally and took AUD above .7700 briefly. USDJPY rallied to test 109.00 as the Nikkei rallied.. BoJ’s Harada: prices do not appear to be rising; expects prices to rise as oil px effects fall away; not denying that recovery is still weak; too early to assess effects of neg rate policy; BoJ should add to easing if risks to price appears. Overall the dollar is stronger with EUR lower overnight.. Stocks look likely to get off to a strong start in Europe.. WTI is down 1.8% as API inventories came in higher last night.. US yields supporting the dollar with the 10yr at 1.79%. Today we get CPI data for France & Spain, EU Industrial production.. In the US the big data will be Retail Sales. Good luck.