The markets are back in risk aversion mode this morning as Geo-Political concerns and a plethora of fresh negative news hit the news wires. The pending trade war between the US and China appears to be gathering pace as China confirmed its tariffs took effect yesterday, although China is still looking for further dialogue on trade with the US. The US equity markets were under pressure as tech stocks once again led the way with President Trump seemingly on the war path against the Amazon with his Twitter account his weapon of choice.
As expected we saw another flight to safety across global markets with Gold and Jpy once again the main recipients, Gold trading up to nearly 1345.00 and Jpy gaining against all the majors. The US 10yr yield is now trading back around 2.77 having fallen to 2.73 during earlier trading.
Looking ahead to today’s trading and in the Asian session we have the RBA set to once again inform that market that it’s keeping its Cash Rate on hold, as usual the market will be closely monitoring the statement for any change. Into the London session and we have a raft of Manufacturing PMI numbers due from Europe culminating in the UK print at 8.30 pm. It’s quiet throughout the New York session in terms of fundamental data releases but expect the market to be focussed on the news wires and any further developments on the many geo-political issue affecting the markets at the moment.