Morning Update – 08/11/2017 – by Arjun Lakhanpal

Morning all.. Another quiet session on Wall St where stocks closed around unchanged with the Nasdaq a few points lower. In Asia the Nikkei recovered into the close to finish up around unchanged and HK and China were a little lower. The dollar came under pressure after advancing against G10 peers amid concern about the progress of U.S. tax reforms. The dollar slipped after a Washington Post report that Senate Republican leaders are considering a delay in the implementation of a corporate-tax cut. Oil declined after recent rallies. Geopolitics remain a focus as U.S. President Donald Trump continues his tour of Asia. Addressing South Korea’s National Assembly on Wednesday, he called on all nations to deny aid and assistance to North Korea as a way to choke off the rogue regime. He said he’s ready to offer North Korea “a path to a much better future” if it puts an end to its nuclear ambitions. Next stop for Trump: Beijing. In the UK overnight the UK Recruitment & Employment Confederation said that October starting salaries rose at 2nd quickest rate since Nov ’15; availability of permanent and temporary workers continued to fall sharply; need clarity about what future immigration systems look like otherwise situation will get worse and employers will face even more staff shortages. Data in China saw China Oct Trade Surplus: $38.2bn vs $39.5bn cons; Imports: +17.2% y/y vs +16.0% cons; Exports +6.9% y/y vs +7.2% cons; Trade Surplus w/ US $26.62bn vs $28.08bn prev month-China Oct FX Reserves: $3.1092T vs 3.1085T prev-China Oct Vehicle Sales: +2.7% y/y; YTD Sales: +1.4% y/y. We have no data of note in Europe this morning.. Good luck.