The markets consolidated in recent ranges over the course of yesterday’s trading sessions as investors revaluated positions ahead of the upcoming G7 and the associated trade discussions. There was more red than black across global equity indices with tech stocks outperforming financials on the whole. The euro caught a bid as new Italian PM Giuseppe advised that they would not be leaving the euro and the market heard of a report that the ECB may announce plans to end QE next week. Oil had its first positive day for the week and gold bounced off recent lows. Sterling also came back strongly after the second positive PMI print of the week, this time the Services number, although Brexit concerns still weigh on it overall.
Looking ahead to today’s trading and once again the Asian session will be looking to Australia first up as we have the release of the latest quarterly GDP data, expectation sits at 0.9% for the quarterly number and 2.8% for the year on year and this release has the potential to have much more impact on the market than yesterdays RBA announcement.
It’s relatively quiet in terms of fundamental economic releases for the rest of the Asian session and indeed in the London time zone as well, and therefore investors will be monitoring the news wires closely once again for anything fresh in terms of the plethora of trade issues and geopolitical factors that are relevant in the market currently. Into the New York session and traders will look to the Canadian market with Trade Balance data due to be released alongside the monthly building permits numbers – but once again, news will probably have a greater influence on moves with anything fresh from the US administration likely to have a bigger short-term effect on the markets than the underlying fundamentals.