Morning Update – 03/11/2017 – by Arjun Lakhanpal

Wall St had a rather mixed session with the S&P closing up marginally but the NASDAQ down marginally in what was a choppy day as Trump announced his new Fed Chair; Jerome Powell and markets digested the tax reform draft bill. This Fed Chair announcemnt had been leaked so the impact was minimal but we saw further weakness in US yields and a further flattening of the yield curve which capped the dollar all day. No stopping the Nikkei though which posted another gain of 0.53% and ends the week on a high note. In FX it was all about the AUD overnight as the currency took a hit and bond yields headed lower after retail sales data raised doubts about the strength of the economy. Sales were flat on the month following a 0.5% decline in August and a 0.3% fall in July. The consensus forecast was for a 0.4% gain! That left nominal sales down 0.3% for Q3 as a whole, the weakest result since 2010. Over in China we saw China Oct Caixin Services PMI higher: 51.2 vs 50.6 prior. This morning we get Swedish, and UK services PMI but the main event is of course the US Non-farm payrolls data and average earnings later.. Good luck.