Asia Follows the Rally on Wall Street

This morning in Asia, as well as the Pacific Rim, markets were mostly upbeat as they followed the rally on Wall Street overnight. Once again, US financial markets hit record highs. Investors were also buoyed by data out of China as trade data came in better-than expected.

In Australia, the S&P ASX 200 jumped over 1.2 percent. Subsectors like materials was up 1.5 percent and financials rose 1.7 percent. This morning Australia reported their trade balance for October. The deficit came in at A$1.541 billion, which was wider than the expected A$800 million forecasted.

In Japan, the benchmark Nikkei 225 was up more than one percent at one point, but a stronger yen saw the market pair some gains closing up 0.85 percent. As of 12:10 am HK time, the USD/JPY Forex market was trading at 113.30. The yen was closer to ¥114 yesterday.

Japan also released economic data this morning was their third quarter gross domestic product (GDP) was revised down from 2.2 percent to 1.3 percent (annually). Economist expected the Q3 GDP to be revised up to 2.4 percent.

The largest data release his morning came out of regional powerhouse, China. They released their dollar denominated trade data this morning. Imports grew at their fastest annual pace since September 2013 at 6.7 percent. Exports were up 0.1 percent. Analysts expected November exports to fall 5 percent and imports to fall 6.2 percent for the month of November.

Looking at today’s broader Forex markets, the European Central Bank (ECB) is scheduled to release their monetary policy decision. They are expected to announce a six month extension of their QE bond buying program. This morning, the EUR/USD Forex market was, as of 12:10 HK time, trading at 1.0775. Last week the euro was trading at $1.065.

The US Dollar index, which measures the Dollar against a basket of other currencies up trading at 100.03 at 12:10 HK time. The Dollar was closer to $101 last week at this time.