APAC Morning Update - 16 Nov 2020

Over the Weekend

Both the AUD/USD and NZD/USD sold off slightly with currency markets becoming more risk averse Thursday and Friday, as COVID infections spread, and the heads of the Federal Reserve and ECB stressed the economic outlook remains uncertain.

China has confirmed a new multilateral trade deal, the RCEP. It will involve about a third of global GDP, that included Australia and New Zealand. They have also launched satellites to stake their claim in the race to 6G.

China’s foreign minister has said they are not backing away for tackling Australia for repeatedly have spoken and acted out of turn on issues concerning “China’s core interests” and see it up to Australia to reverse their positions.

Level 1 still remains across New Zealand, after community cases last week in Auckland and Wellington threatened that current bliss.

U.S consumer sentiment fall sharply in early November, with the disruption of the elections, and the increasing Covid cases adding the negative outlook. Adding to that, the U.S monthly deficit just keeps growing, and is now a huge -15.5% of 2020 nominal GDP.

Europe and Britain

Negotiations are set to resume on Monday for Brexit negotiations, after missing another deadline of mid-November, ahead of a potentially crucial meeting on Thursday. Brexit mastermind Dominic Cummings is leading the talks for Britain, and there are hopes he will be less hard line in his talks with Brussels.

What to expect this week

Governor Lowe will be speaking today and Wednesday, with RBA minutes tomorrow.

Employment numbers will be released on Thursday.

Global equity are generally higher Dow 1.37%, S&P 500 +-1.36%, FTSE -0.36%, DAX 0.18%, CAC 0.33%, Nikkei -0.53%, Shanghai -0.86%.

Gold prices are up 0.7% currently trading at $1,888.50 an ounce. WTI Crude Oil prices fell 3.3% trading at $40.11 a barrel.