Tuesday’s API oil report showed a fall in reserves totalling 2.3 million barrels, although the quotes for the commodity were hardly affected by this. Brent attempted a spurt to and beyond $47.4 per barrel, but was pushed back to $46.7 by the end of the day. At the Asian session on Wednesday, oil was trading in a $46.6-$46.8 range. This evening some more oil reserve stats will be out from the EIA. Reserves according to this report are also expected to have fallen by 2.333 million barrels for the week after a previous 2.546 million barrel fall.
After yesterday’s close of the US DJIA at a new maximum, the Asian markets this morning were off in different directions. The Nikkei 225 fell by 0.4%. The ASX Australia was up 0.4%. The Shanghai Composite decreased 0.1%, and the Hang Seng was up by 0.8%. Futures for the S&P 500 were trading at 2157; 0.1% below the closing level of the previous trading day.
For the first half of 2016, China’s non-financial direct investment overseas rose 58.7% YoY to 580.28 billion yuan. In particular, Chinese investors in June were invested 100.17 billion yuan (+44.9%). The total for the indicator for this year until the end of June is 6.2 trillion yuan: commercial services – 24.6%; manufacturing industry – 19.8%; wholesale and retail trading – 16.4%; and mining industry – 4.7%. In particular, investment of this kind in foreign manufacturing industries reached $17.59 billion; a 245.6% growth.
The USD was trading down against the yuan this morning at 6.6870 (-0.0093 or -0.14%).
The ZEW institute published its July assessment of the current economic situation and business sentiment in Germany and the Eurozone on Tuesday. All three indicators came out significantly worse than expected. Meanwhile, June construction permits and foundations lain in the US saw a rise which exceeded that forecasted by the experts. As a result, the dollar rose against all key currencies. In particular, the EUR/USD fell from 1.1080 to 1.1000. Wednesday morning has seen the pair in a 1.1000-1.1020 range, attempting to restore higher. The main news of today is that coming out of the UK (stats on unemployment and average salaries) and Switzerland (ZEW economic expectations index).