Good morning
More protests were seen across China over lockdowns as Covid case there continue to climb. Many protestors were calling on President Xi to step down. Asian equities generally lower but China stocks were the worst hit, the recent cut in RRR to 11% seems to be forgotten, while USDCNY opened higher on the news. The demonstrations are no longer confined to smaller cities. Beijing and Shanghai have seen protests.
Interestingly there are reports that the World Cup has something to do with this, as China citizens see maskless fans in crowded stadiums. It is reported that China TV are now only showing long distance images of crowds and editing out close-ups of fans at matches. China will no doubt blame outside influences for the protests but the World Cup may have given the Chinese people a glimpse of life outside Covid restrictions.
AUD opened lower on the China news and was hit again as Aussie retail sales came in lower than expected. Having closed near 0.6750, AUDUSD traded as low as 0.6665, despite the feeling that RBA rates will peak at 3.35%, 25bps higher than previously thought, according to UBS at least.
GBPUSD has traded lower overnight as a result of the generally stronger dollar, GBPUSD as low as 1.2025 at one point but now up at 1.2080. EUR followed a similar path, trading down to 1.0340 but has performed strongly since the London open, reaching 1.0430 so far, in turn pushing GBPEUR back below 1.1600.
After a reasonably quiet week last week, this weeks calendar is far more interesting, with US GDP, PMIs, Powell speaking, and then the US employment numbers Friday. Plenty of Fed officials on the calendar as well, we’ll watch for more signals that Fed will look to a 50bps rate rise in December.
Congratulations to Jill Scott for winning this years I’m a Celebrity. I can’t say I’ve seen too much of it this year. I lost a bit of interest when they all start getting on too well and winning enough to keep them from being too hungry. I’m not looking for raging arguments but a bit of tension is always good.
Speaking of winning, well that’s something that the England football team failed to do Friday against USA in a fairly miserable display that disappointed after the excitement from the Iran match. We still top our group but really need to get something from the Wales match tomorrow if we are to progress. Cameroon v Serbia up first this morning. My son had a great time in Qatar after only just making it due to his Hayya visa being approved at just the last second. But I see plenty of fans from across the world have not been so lucky and have missed flights and matches because their visa applications were stuck in a state of ‘pending’.
Englands Rugby players fared no better over the weekend, losing fairly heavily to South Africa. However the greatest loss for Rugby was Doddie Weir the Scottish rugby giant who lost his battle against Motor Neurone Disease over the weekend at the age of 52. His foundation has raised £8m to help with research into the disease since his diagnosis back in 2016. An impressive performance both on and off the pitch.
- 13.30 CAD current account
- 14.00 ECBs Lagarde speaks
- 17.00 Feds Bullard, Williams speak
- 17.10 ECBs Nagel speaks
- 23.30 Japan unemployment
- 23.50 Japan retail trade
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