Morning Update – 22/09/2017 – by Arjun Lakhanpal

Morning all.. Wall St fell with the S&P closing down 0.3% as fears rise that N.K may react badly to new sanctions from Trump. This also stalled the dollar rally. The theme continues into Asia where the Nikkei fell 0.23% and USDJPY remained under pressure, falling to  alow of 111.65 at one stage. US yields also fell. A risk off environment ensued overnight after North Korea ratcheted up geo-political tensions. North Korea has threatened to detonate a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific, after Kim Jong Un warned that Donald Trump would “pay dearly” for his threat this week to “totally destroy” North Korea if America was forced to defend itself and its allies. Safe haven currencies buoyed with CHF and JPY posting gains of 0.25% and 0.6% respectively. Other G10 crosses had a muted overnight session, trading within their range. In other asset classes, Gold was in focus supported by the risk off sentiment making gains of 0.4% trading up to $1,296.45 an ounce. Most in focus today will be the speech from Theresa May to be delivered in Florence at 2.15pm BST. Theresa May is expected to propose a period of transition after Brexit takes effect in 2019 with the aim to maintain trade ties with the EU. May is expect to promise to strengthen legal protection for EU citizen living in the UK and detail what bill the U.K will pay to leave the E.U, an estimate figure of 20bn EUR. Oil prices were mixed in early Asian trade on Friday as the market waited to see whether major oil producers would extend supply cuts beyond March at a meeting in Vienna later in the day. This morning we get French, German and EU PMI data.. Good luck..