Steel Steals US-China Spotlight

Asia

Despite Hong Kong’s Carrie Lam’s statement this morning that the disputed extradition bill is a dead failure, indexes ended the overnight stretch in the red overnight, the Hang Seng leading Chinese equities southward with a 0.75% loss, and the Nikkei in the green at 0.

After June’s Labour Cash Earnings in Japan contracted last night by another 0.2%, machinery orders this morning increased their contraction rate to -38%. In Australia, overnight data shows a 70% drop to 2 in the business confidence index but a tripling in business conditions (from 1 to 3), based on the nation’s central bank surveys. Teletrader is reporting a Japan Centre for Economic Research and Nikkei survey that shows an economic decline across all ASEAN nations in 2019.

Europe

Major European indices closed down yesterday, with Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark less than a percent in the green. As Europe’s investor confidence index increases its contraction to -5.8% in June, the British Retailers consortium last night posted another 1.6% contraction in like-for-like store sales – a record-breaking low.

US

US indexes ended yesterday in the red for a second day in a row on lowered expectations of a Fed cut. The Nasdaq was helped along in its downward trajectory by Apple, which lost $7 on the share on poor iPhone-x sales. What little data that did come in from the US shows consumer credit falling in May but not as much as feared – $17.09 bn.

With US-China trade talks slated to begin this week, the US International Trade Commission claims that fabricated structural steel imports are undermining local production, according to Reuters. Commission investigations show that Mexico and China have been subsidizing their industries by up to 74% and 177%, respectively.

Commodities

WTI crude oil attempted to break through resistance at $58 at the start of the Asian session, but failed and is back to the $57.50 bandwidth. Gold trading, after regaining half its weekly losses over the weekend, returned overnight to the sub-1400 region and is currently trending sideways at 1397. And this morning finds bitcoin once again attacking the 12700 resistance level

Corporate

Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing has said he would invest his salary in company shares after initiating an 18,000 job cutback. After rising 7% on the initiation of its restructuring process, company shares yesterday fell 10%, effectively erasing a week’s worth of gains. Meanwhile, another CEO, Richard Branson, is planning an IPO for his Virgin Galactic enterprise.

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