by Chris Becker
The only people who believed the ABS unemployment figures yesterday were the government of the day and the “professional” economists. The market just traded the sentiment as the rest of the developed world looked on in disbelief! Initial jobless claims in the US were more credible, if a little more than expected while the UK trade balance blewout as the BOE kept its hand steady on further asset purchases and interest rates at its monthly meeting last night. Stocks were mixed across both sides of the Atlantic with a sharp sell off erasing almost all the gains on US markets. Caution is ruling the day as expectations of a Fed rate hike loom for next week. Oil continues to fall as production rates continue to climb.
Starting with Asia’s session and where the Shanghai Composite was on track for another scratch session, but sold off in the afternoon, down 0.5% to 3455 points, still just above support at 3400 points. This is the previous resistance level through October and needs to hold but I think if this commodities rout continues we’ll see terminal support at 3000 tested:
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