08.11.13

Asian markets got some positive news this session following data release from China which shows an increase in exports, and a decrease in imports. The trade balance increased from 15.2B to 31.1B, well above the expected 23.9B. USD/JPY was trading 98.20 with a high of 98.25 and a low of 98.04 so far. Further Chinese data will be released following the close tonight, including their CPI figures, retails sales figures and industrial production numbers.

The NIKKEI closed at 14086.80 down 141.64 points or minus 1.00%

The big surprise to the markets yesterday was the unexpected rate cut by the ECB, where the rate was cut from 0.5% down to 0.25% yesterday afternoon. The Euro declined against all pairs, and the Dax Index once again reached an all-time high. The EUR/USD hit a seven week low, dropping from close to 1.35 to a low of 1.3295 following the announcement. Today the pair is trading at 1.3414, with a high of 1.3420 and a low of 1.3388 so far.

The FTSE100 closed at 6667.62 down 29.60 points or minus 0.44% while the DAX is trading at 9018.80 down 62.23 or minus 0.69%

American Non-farm Payroll figures will be released this afternoon. Both US and Canada will publish unemployment rate figures at the time of the NFP so USD pairings could see high volume traded around these figures. Expectations are that the unemployment rate for the USA will increase slightly from 7.2% to 7.3%.

The DOW closed at 15594.00 down 152.90 points or minus 0.97%

Hope you all have a nice weekend.