Asian shares have done well overnight - indexes in Japan and HK climbing, while China onshore stocks reacted in a mixed fashion to data showing that the nations factory activity was expanding for the second month running and hit a 14 month high. Samsung's earnings surged after the semi-conductor business turned profitable in for the first time since 2022. In the US, equity futures have been calm even after some strong early earnings announcements which suggest that > 80% of companies are beating expectations for this reporting season (and ahead of Amazon and Apple earnings today and Thursday, respectively) , possibly due to investors weighting up this news vs the likelihood that the Fed will keep interest rates higher for longer.
The yen movement yesterday meant we saw the widest trading range in USDJPY since 2022, amid speculation that the BoJ intervened to stop the deprecation of it's currency. In China, there is further speculation as to whether there will be government intervention to support its economy by moving to devalue the yuan. There are Chinese holidays from Wednesday this week until the beginning of next week for Labour Day.
In commodities, Oil dropped as discussion of possible ceasefires in the middle east.
Today is month end and on the data front Eurozone CPI and GDP are the key points of interest. CPI is expected to hold steady at 2.4% on the headline reading, and improve from 2.9% to 2.6% on the core. Q1 GDP is expected to print at +0.1% QoQ, which would make for +0.2% YoY. We also get GDP breakdowns for France, Spain, Italy and Germany, and CPI for France and Italy. The BOE will release its Asset Purchase Facility quarterly report.
