Sentiment was mildly positive in the US as the major US equity inidces closed slightly higher. Tax reform has remained largely at the top of the agenda and doubts over it happening at all this year persist, markets are also eyeing to see if corporate tax cuts will effectively have to wait till 2019.
During the Asian session sentiment somehwat worsened after China reported some softer data. For the month of October retail sales and industrial production both eased below previous and expected levels. The biggest drop was for foreign direct investment which dropped from 17.3% to 5%.
The US Dollar so far managed to at least stop last week’s decline, managing to hold on well against its major peers throughout Monday’s session. Higher US treasury yields have helped support for the US Dollar.
Even the GBP managed to hold steady this morning after the declines seen yesterday. The declines for the pound come on reports that May’s leadership will likely face an upcoming leadership challenge.
Later today we are expecting German Gross Domestic Product for the third quarter, and UK CPI index for the month of October. From the EZ we also have the Zew Survey and GDP figures for the third quarter as well. We have a number of bankers speaking today in Frankfurt with Yellen, Carney, Kuroda and Draghi speaking on an ECB panel.
