Strong Yen Pushing The Nikkei Lower, Oil Drops on Output Cut Doubts

The financial markets in the Asian and Pacific Rim had a mixed day to start the trading week this morning. Japanese stocks moved slightly lower after seven straight trading days of gains. The Japanese yen traded sharply higher against the US Dollar and oil prices moved lower.

In Japan, their headline stock bourse, the Nikkei 225, closed down 0.13% as the yen gained against the Dollar. This is seen as a negative for the country’s exporters. The USD/JPY, as of 09:00 am GMT time, is down one percent to trade at 112.02. This Forex market had been trading near ¥113 last week.

In the Down Under, the S&P ASX 200 was also down 0.79% as the energy sub-index dragged the Australian stock bourse lower. This sub-sector was down 1.7 percent tracking the price of crude oil lower. Materials also fell on the day, down 1.14 percent.

Oil prices fall this morning over doubts of OPEC producers to generate an agreement of output cut at their meeting on Wednesday. Crude oil dropped one percent to trade at 45.61 while Brent crude oil trades at 47.83 down 0.85%.

In South Korea, hundreds of thousands of protestors rallied calling for the ouster of President Park Geun-hye who is embroiled in an influence-peddling scandal. At first, the Kospi Composite Index fell then reversed course to trade up a tad over 0.3 percent.

In China, the Shanghai Composite Index was up a half percent and the Shenzhen Composite Index was virtually flat up a mere 0.1 percent. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index was up 0.6 percent on the day. Last Frida, China and Hong Kong security regulators announced the Hong Kong-Shenzhen direct connect would start on December 5. This would allow foreign investors to trade shares on the Shenzhen in Hong Kong.

Looking at the broad Forex market, the US Dollar Index, which sees the US Dollar trading against a basket of currencies, fell this morning. The Dollar as trading, as of 09:00 am GMT time, at 100.95. The index had surged to 102.07 last week. A high not seen since April 2003. The soft Dollar is seen as corrective as the almighty Buck remains strong thanks to US President-elect Donald Trump’s vast infrastructure spending program.