- Indices from Asia-Pacific traded mixed today - Nikkei gained 0.1% while S&P/ASX 200 traded 0.3% lower. Overall, liquidity conditions were thin as traders from China, South Korea and India were off to celebrate holidays
- US index futures launched new week's trade with an around 0.4-0.5% bullish price gap in reaction to US politicians approving a temporary funding for the US government
- The US Congress passed a stop gap bill to ensure government funding for 45 days. US politicians will now try to work out a more enduring agreement before the new funding deadline expires in mid-November
- European index futures are pointing a slightly higher opening of the cash session on the Old Continent
- Bank of Japan announced that it will conduct unscheduled bond purchase to slow pick-up in Japanese yields
- BoJ Governor Ueda said that there is still a distance to go before BoJ can exit its loose monetary policy. Ueda said that significant size of BoJ balance sheet will make it difficult to exit policy and may lead to massive losses
- Official Chinese PMI manufacturing improved from 49.7 to 50.2 in September (exp. 50.1) while services PMI improved from 51.0 to 51.7 (exp. 51.5). All 4 Chinese PMIs (2 official and 2 private) are in expansion territory after September (above 50 points)
- Japanese final manufacturing PMI for September came in at 48.5 (48.6 in first release)
- Australian final manufacturing PMI for September came in at 48.7 (48.2 in first release)
- Cryptocurrencies are trading higher today, with Bitcoin adding 3% and climbing above $28,000 mark
- Energy commodities are trading mixed - oil gains 0.1% while US natural gas prices drop over 1%
- Precious metals pull back at the beginning of a new week - gold drops 0.3%, silver trades 1.7% lower while platinum adds 0.3%
- EUR and USD are the best performing major currencies while AUD, CHF and CAD are top laggards
US100 as well as futures on other US indices launched this week's trading with a bullish price gap in response to US Congress passing a stopgap funding bill. Source: xStation5
