Forex Marketz Daily Forex News – Fully Markets Update
Asian sentiment throughout the Asian and Pacific Rim remains weak as traders are waiting on China to release trade data for last month. At time of publication, this data had yet to be released.
Yesterday, the financial markets in China and throughout the Asian region were higher after news that China would cut existing tariffs on U.S. goods in half.
The Japanese Nikkei 225 was down a fraction of a percentage after reversing early gains. The broader Topix index in Tokyo fell 0.22 percent.
Shares in South Korea were also down as the Kospi composite index shed 0.71 percent. In Australia the ASX 200 was down 0.42 percent. Mining and oil plays led the way lower.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index fell over 0.8 percent and shares on the mainland, in China, were also lower.
The Shanghai composite lost 0.76 percent and the smaller Shenzhen composite fell 0.34 percent by noon.
Asian and Global Traders Wait on the U.S. NFP and Canadian Employment Change
The U.S. non-farm payroll (NFP), will be released today. This is scheduled for 1:30 pm GMT. Analysts, for the month of January, are expecting the U.S. economy to add 160K new jobs.
The unemployment rate, for the world’s largest economy, is expected to stay steady at 3.5 percent. Also on the schedule are hourly wages, which are expected to tick higher from 0.1 in December to 0.3 percent for January. The labor participation rate will also be monitored.
At the same time the U.S. NFP crosses the wires, Canada will be publishing their monthly employment change. This will also include their hourly wages and unemployment rate. Canada’s economy is expected to add 15K new jobs in January and their unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 5.6 percent.
Germany and France are releasing monthly industrial production data. Monthly trade data for France and Germany are also on the schedule. Italy will publish monthly retail sales.
