Regional equities mostly a tad higher in cautious trade as investors remain wary over Europe’s debt crisis; the Nikkei falls 0.8%, the S&P/ASX drops 1.1%, the HSI adds 0.4%, the Kospi is flat, the Sensex advances 0.3%, the Shanghai Composite increases 0.2%, and Singapore’s STI adds 0.7%. In FX markets, the EUR remains under pressure on renewed Europe debt concerns; the EUR/USD is at 1.2923 from 1.2946 late Wednesday in New York, the EUR/JPY is at 99.15 from 99.38, and the USD/JPY is at 76.73 from 76.72. China’s trade surplus likely further narrowed last year to around $160 billion, Xinhua news agency cites Commerce Minister Chen Deming as saying. The PBOC suspends its regular open market operation Thursday, thereby injecting funds into the market in Beijing’s latest attempt to provide support to the country’s slowing economy, people familiar with the situation told Dow Jones. The HSBC Hong Kong December PMI rises to 49.7 from November’s 48.7. Australia’s November seasonally-adjusted trade surplus is at A$1.38 billion vs October’s A$1.42 billion surplus, a A$1.65 billion surplus tipped. Bank Indonesia will “cautiously implement a countercyclical policy through a policy mix between monetary policy and macro prudential policy to mitigate a potential decline in domestic economy, without jeopardizing the overriding priority of maintaining inflation within its targets,” according to the comments on the slides provided by Hartadi A. Sarwono, Bank Indonesia deputy governor at a Singapore event. Spot Gold is at $1,620.60/oz, up $8.10 from its New York settlement Wednesday. February Nymex Crude Oil futures are 16 cents higher at $103.38/bbl on Globex.
EasyForexNews Research Team