China and Hong Kong shares rallied, while American equities are mixed—S&P +0.21%, Dow Jones -0.33%. Elections are in focus, with Japanese by-elections set for this Sunday. Overnight, Governor Kazuo Ueda signaled that the central bank won’t hike interest rates next week, with almost all BOJ watchers already expecting no policy shift this month. Ueda spoke after the yen slid to its lowest level since July 31 against the dollar earlier this week (153.18), and we open at 151.80, sitting above the 200-day moving average at 151.40.
On a different note, the trader who spent more than $45 million on Polymarket bets that Donald Trump will win the upcoming U.S. presidential election has been identified as a French national, using the username Freddi9999. This was revealed following an investigation by the cryptocurrency-based prediction markets platform. I’m not sure how useful this information is, but it's out there.
Back to the day ahead, we have U.S. durable goods and University of Michigan consumer sentiment data. Will the yield story continue? The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined four basis points to 4.17% overnight.
In other markets, Bitcoin fell 0.6% to $67,711.01, Ether dropped 1.7% to $2,491.82, and domestically, the UK 10-year yield advanced four basis points to 4.24%. In commodities, spot gold fell 0.3% to $2,728.20 an ounce, while West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.2% to $70.36 a barrel.
