Morning Update – 03/07/2017 – by Arjun Lakhanpal

Morning all.. After a choppy session on Friday, Wall St managed to close up 0.15% as we head towards the US Independence day holiday tomorrow. Asia was rather choppy as well but the Nikkei managed a mildly positive close; up 0.09%. Not a bad close considering Scandal-hit Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe faces one of his biggest tests since coming to power in late 2012, after his ruling party lost to an upstart outfit in an election for Tokyo’s assembly. The Liberal Democratic Party lost more than half its seats to end up with 23, the lowest number ever in the capital, in a vote that could be a harbinger for national elections. Voter turnout was up about eight percentage points on the previous poll four years ago. USDJPY dipped at the Asian open but has since recovered all losses and is making new session highs.  Abe’s defeat may fuel speculation he will resort to fresh economic stimulus to win support, which could boost Japanese stocks and weaken the yen. . AUD traded lower off the back off lower-than expected-building approval in May, the RBA interest rate meeting early tomorrow morning will be key for AUD this week. In other asset classes equities made small gains and treasuries continued to sell off. Brent continued its longest rising streak in more than 7 years reaching $48.85 a barrel. The FT reported that the UK government are headed to Brussels with a secret plan for a free-trade deal on financial services based on the concept of “mutual access”; the plan is said to have unofficial support in Whitehall and from German officials. This morning we have Swedish and Norwegian Manufacturing PMI and PMI data across Europe including the UK. We also get EU unemployment. Good luck..