Themes
· General mood is “risk off”
· Japanese Household Spending weaker than expected at +1.1%
· RBA left rates unchanged, as was expected
What’s Moving
A very quiet session in Asia today, with China again out on holidays and after a lack o fresh cues from overnight trade. Rangs were tight across all of the majors. Oil did catch a light bid in afternoon trade, but everything else held within tight ranges.
Afternoon trading saw the RBA leave Australian interest rates unchanged. Despite this, the AUD raced to a new session high.
Tonight sees a stack of second tier data, which could well define the flow of the session.
Data tonight sees:
· French final Services PMI (E: 57.4)
· German Final Services PMI (E: 55.0)
· Euro-zone Final Services PMI (E: 54.8)
· U.K. Final Services PMI (E: 60.9)
· Canadian Trade Balance (E: $2.9bln)
· U.S. Final Services PMI (E: 58.6)
· U.S. ISM Services PMI (E: 58.9)