Morning Update – 09/03/16 – by Arjun Lakhanpal

Morning all.. Wall St finished lower after a choppy session as oil fell with the S&P closing down 1.12% and the weak sentiment carried into Asia with the Nikkei closing down 0.84% HK down small and China down over 1%. Oil is unchanged and gold 4 dollars lower. China State Council Research Office Dep Head: slightly slower growth acceptable if employment stays stable; no plans for major stimulus; still have many tools we could use if needed due to growth falling below a reasonable bottom line; bigger budget deficit this year will mainly be used to finance tax cuts.. USDJPY lower on the weaker Nikkei with EUR unchanged even as we move towrds the ECB meeting tomorrow and traders feel tomorrow’s ECB meeting will be very difficult for the council to get right. AUD is a little lower but not far from the US close and most seem to waiting for central bank meetings this week from Canada (today) NZ and the ECB tomorrow.. Looking at the day ahead, the calendar is fairly thin on the ground data-wise again today. This morning in the European session the main data of note will be the industrial and manufacturing production reports out of the UK covering the January month (expected at +0.4% mom and +0.2% mom respectively), while the French business sentiment survey is also expected. Over in the US this afternoon the only releases of note are the January wholesale inventories and trade sales data with modest declines expected for both. Away from this the BoE’s Bailey is expected to speak this morning, while central bank wise we’ll get the Bank of Canada decision this afternoon (no change expected). Good luck.