ASIA:

Singapore’s central bank unexpectedly tightened its monetary policy on Thursday, delivering its first such move in three years amid mounting cost pressures caused by supply constraints and a recovery in the global economy. The central bank, which manages its policy through exchange rate settings, said it would raise the slope of its currency policy band from zero percent previously. Irvin Seah, a senior economist at DBS, said the move was a result of growth and inflation emerging out of a recessionary situation.

The major Asian stock markets had a mixed day today:

• NIKKEI 225 decreased 546.97 or -1.87% to 28,708.58
• Shanghai increased 7.78 or 0.22% to 3,594.78
• Hang Seng decreased 118.49 points or -0.45% to 26,017.53
• ASX 200 increased 1.70 points or 0.02 to 7,415.40
• Kospi decreased 5.80 points or -0.19% to 3,007.33
• SENSEX decreased 336.46 points or -0.55% to 60,923.50
• Nifty50 decreased 88.50 points or -0.48% to 18,178.10

The major Asian currency markets had a negative day today:

• AUDUSD decreased 0.00355 or -0.47% to 0.74841
• NZDUSD decreased 0.00391 or -0.54% to 0.71624
• USDJPY decreased 0.57 or -0.50% to 113.77
• USDCNY decreased 0.00287 or -0.04% to 6.38903

Precious Metals:

• Gold increased 0.11 USD/t oz. or 0.01% to 1,781.94
• Silver decreased 0.128 USD/t. oz or -0.53% to 24.140

Some economic news from last night:

Japan:

Foreign Bonds Buying increased from 140.8B to 1,221.3B

Foreign Investments in Japanese Stocks decreased from 1,015.6B to 960.1B

South Korea:

PPI (MoM) (Sep) decreased from 0.5% to 0.2%

PPI (YoY) (Sep) increased from 7.4% to 7.5%

Australia:

NAB Quarterly Business Confidence decreased from 18 to -1

New Zealand:

Credit Card Spending (YoY) decreased from -6.9% to -12.9%

Some economic news from today:

Hong Kong:

Unemployment Rate (Sep) decreased from 4.7% to 4.5%

India:

M3 Money Supply increased from 9.3% to 9.9%

EUROPE/EMEA:

Britain’s Brexit chief has refused to publish details of his plans for changes to the Northern Ireland protocol, despite having already shared them with the EU. Lord Frost said the legal text – which opposition parties want to scrutinize – was not a “new stage or evolution in our position,” and simply reflected the UK’s position set out earlier in the summer. Lord Frost also appeared to suggest the government had not explicitly consulted with ministers in Northern Ireland during the process of drawing up the final legal text.

The major Europe stock markets had a negative day:

• CAC 40 decreased 19.44 points or -0.29% to 6,686.17
• FTSE 100 decreased 32.80 points or -0.45% to 7,190.30
• DAX 30 decreased 50.36 points or -0.32% to 15,472.56

The major Europe currency markets had a negative day today:

• EURUSD decreased 0.00181 or -0.16% to 1.16380
• GBPUSD decreased 0.00227 or -0.16% to 1.38032
• USDCHF decreased 0.00114 or -0.12% to 0.91757

Some economic news from Europe today:

UK:

CBI Industrial Trends Orders (Oct) decreased from 22 to 9

Public Sector Net Borrowing (Sep) increased from 16.06B to 21.01B

Public Sector Net Cash Requirement (Sep) remain the same at 4.688B

France:

French Business Survey (Oct) remain the same at 107

Italy:

Italian Industrial Sales (MoM) (Aug) remain the same at 0.80%

Italian Industrial Sales (YoY) (Aug) decreased from 19.00% to 13.80%

Euro Zone:

Consumer Confidence (Oct) decreased from -4.0 to -4.8

US/AMERICAS:

The US workforce is recovering as initial jobless claims reached a post-pandemic low last week, according to the weekly Labor Department report. Initial claims fell by 6,000 to 290,000 during the week ending on October 16, marking the second consecutive week that claims remained below 300,000. Continuing claims also reach a post-pandemic low after falling 122,000 to 2.48 million. Americans receiving benefits under state and federal programs reached 23.8 million a year ago at this time; the figure is only 3.279 million now.

After several central bank members reportedly profited off of COVID-sensitive equities and bonds last year, a new rule was announced that prohibits Federal Reserve members from certain investments. “These tough new rules raise the bar high in order to assure the public we serve that all of our senior officials maintain a single-minded focus on the public mission of the Federal Reserve,” Fed Chair Jerome Powel, who sold off millions before the Dow dropped in October 2020, announced. Fed officials now must provide a 45-day notice before buying or selling securities, and they must hold those securities for a year. Central bank members are now barred from owning individual stocks and bonds and are prohibited from owning agency securities or derivative contracts.

US Market Closings:

• Dow declined 6.26 points or -0.02% to 35,603.08
• S&P 500 advanced 13.59 points or 0.3% to 4,549.78
• Nasdaq advanced 94.02 points or 0.62% to 15,215.7
• Russell 2000 advanced 6.42 points or 0.28% to 2,296.18

Canada Market Closings:

• TSX Composite advanced 24.2 points or 0.11% to 21,212.39
• TSX 60 advanced 1.41 points or 0.11% to 1,274.33

Brazil Market Closing:

• Bovespa declined 3,051.42 points or -2.75% to 107,735.01

ENERGY:

The oil markets had a negative day today:

• Crude Oil decreased 2.05 USD/BBL or -2.46% to 81.3700
• Brent decreased 1.96 USD/BBL or -2.28% to 83.8600
• Natural gas decreased 0.106 USD/MMBtu or -2.05% to 5.0640
• Gasoline decreased 0.0446 USD/GAL or -1.78% to 2.4638
• Heating oil decreased 0.0628 USD/GAL or -2.42% to 2.5295

The above data was collected around 12:22 EST on Thursday

• Top commodity gainers: Rubber (3.17%) and Orange Juice (3.20%), Cocoa (2.12%) and Feeder Cattle (0.38%)
• Top commodity losers: Aluminum (-4.98%), Methanol (-8.67%), Zinc (-4.30%), and Copper (-3.66%)

The above data was collected around 12:40 EST on Thursday

BONDS:

Japan 0.094%(+0.1bp), US 2’s 0.4220%(+0.03%), US 10’s 1.6692%(+0.9bps); US 30’s 2.1278%(

-0.01%),Bunds -0.09% (+3.3bp), France 0.2470% (+3.1bp), Italy 0.9598% (+4.29bp), Turkey 19.02% (-5bp), Greece 1.025% (+2.2bp), Portugal 0.425% (+3.5bp); Spain 0.549% (+4.12bp) and UK Gilts 1.212% (+6.5bp).