Stock markets continue to steadily climb. The Nikkei stated a big 2.2% catch-up rally but other gains have been more moderate with the FTSE, DAX and US index futures all up about 0.2%. In currency trading, USD is flat or up slightly against gold and the other majors.
Overnight, Chinese imports and exports increased, boosting commodity process with the copper gaining 0.5% and WTI crude oil gaining 0.8%. Assurances form President Trump to Chinese Premier Xi that the US will maintain the "One China" policy have also been taken as a positive by traders. Chicago Fed President Evans, a known dove at the FOMC, indicated three rate hikes this year would not be unreasonable, keeping up support for the greenback. We continued to see positive earnings out of the technology sector with NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) beating the street.
There is still a lot of potential news on the way that could keep markets active right through to the weekend. Trade and infrastructure remain a big focus Friday with UK trade data and a summit meeting being held between US President Trump and Japanese PM Abe, with a press conference early afternoon.
Canada posted another huge increase in jobs last month. Once again the street was way too pessimistic at (10K) and I wasn’t optimistic enough at 20K since Canada added 48K jobs last month. Full time jobs grew 15K less than last month’s massive increase while part time jobs rebounded by 32K. CAD is rallying on the news that weakens the case for the Bank of Canada to cut interest rates. The loonie may remain active through PM Trudeau’s meeting with President Trump on Monday.