Varchev Finance: Trading day in post 16.11.2017

Asian stock market: Asian equities shrugged off the softer lead from Wall Street to climb moderately higher on Thursday. The Nikkei 225 rose 0.84 percent to snap a six-day losing streak as financials, retailers and most tech names rose. Fast Retailing added 1.31 percent, Nintendo gained 3.2 percent and SoftBank advanced 1.47 percent. Energy-related plays traded mixed. South Korea's benchmark Kospi index tacked on 0.46 percent. Blue-chip tech names and manufacturing stocks were mostly higher, with Samsung Electronics advancing 0.87 percent. Energy-related stocks also climbed as refinery company S-Oil rose 1.28 percent. Down Under, the S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.15 percent as the heavily-weighted banking sub-index stood little changed in the morning. The energy sub-index climbed 1.77 percent after taking a beating earlier in the week following the declines in oil prices. The positive sentiment was also mirrored in greater China markets. The Hang Seng Index rose 0.53 percent. On the mainland, the Shanghai Composite reversed early gains to slip 0.1 percent and the Shenzhen Composite rose 0.2 percent.

Currency market: The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed, after touching the lowest in almost four weeks Wednesday. The Australian Dollar bought 76.01 U.S. cents, up 0.1%, getting some support from full-time positions surging in October. The Japanese Yen was at 113.04 per dollar, near the strongest in about a month, after rising 0.5% in the previous session. The euro was steady at $1.1785.

Commodity market: WTI crude was steady at $55.35 a barrel after dropping 0.7%. Gold was little changed at $1,278.40 an ounce. The Bloomberg Commodity Index fell the most in more than six months on an intraday basis Tuesday as West Texas Intermediate crude slipped below $56 a barrel. Oil futures for December delivery fell as much as 2.8 percent after areport from the International Energy Agency said that 2017 price gains along with milder-than-normal winter weather are slowing demand growth. “We rallied too far, too quick,” Michael Loewen, a commodities strategist at Scotiabank.

European stock market: European markets will follow the strong performance of their Asian peers and will start the session strong. German DAX will open 55 points higher at 13,008; French CAC is at 5,315 - gaining 18 points, and UKX will be virtually unchanged at 7,377 - inching up with 2 points. Today investors will focus on the Retail Sales data in the UK, as well as the CPI news in the Eurozone. At 16:00 GMT market participants will monitor UK's central bank governor Mark Carney's speech.

U.S. stock market: U.S. stocks closed lower on Wednesday as the current bull market showed signs of slowing down. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 138.19 points to close at 23,271.28 — its lowest close in over three weeks — with Caterpillar contributing the most to the losses. The 30-stock index briefly fell 166 points, but a 2 percent rebound in GE shares helped it cut losses. The S&P 500 fell 0.55 percent to close at 2,564.62, with energy declining 1.2 percent. Energy stocks were pressured by a drop in oil prices. The S&P 500 was also pressured by declines in financials and consumer discretionary stocks. The Nasdaq composite, meanwhile, closed 0.5 percent lower as tech stocks fell broadly. Apple, Netflix and Alphabet were among the big-name tech stocks that were trading lower on Wednesday. Tech has had a stellar year, helping lift the Nasdaq 24 percent higher in 2017. The S&P and Dow are also up sharply for the year.

Economic calendar for the European and U.S. trading sessions:

11:30 UK - Retail Sales
12:00 Europe - CPI
15:30 USA - Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index
16:00 UK - Boe Gov Mark Carney Speaks
16:10 USA - FOMC Member Mester Speaks
16:15 USA - Industrial Production
16:30 USA - FOMC Member Brainard Speaks
19:30 USA - FOMC Member Kaplan Speaks
22:00 Europe - ECB's Constancio Speaks
23:00 New Zealand - Business NZ PMI
23:45 USA - FOMC Member Williams Speaks

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