Equity Market Handover Asian Stocks Showing Strength Ahead Of Fed Except Japan

Stock market snapshot as of [18/6/2019 0530 GMT]

• Ahead of the European open, most Asian stock markets have traded higher as at today’s Asian mid-session ahead of the key 2-day U.S. Fed FOMC meeting that starts later today. The start performer is Singapore’s STI which has rallied by 0.81% led by component stocks; Jardine Matheson and Venture Corp that have climbed by 1.3% and 1.8% respectively.
• The Australia’s ASX 200 has erased yesterday’s losses and reversed to a gain of 0.53% reinforced by a dovish RBA where discussions among officials have opened the possibility of another interest rate cut as indicted from its previous monetary policy meeting minutes.
• Japan’s Nikkei 225 is the underperformer so far which has dropped by -0.71% which is likely to be triggered by a strong JPY where it has continued to gain strength as at today’s Asian mid- session that made it one of the strongest major currencies. Click here & here for our latest analysis/updates on the FX markets.
• No significant movement in the S&P 500 E-mini futures as it has traded in tight range of 0.08% in today’s Asian session that has hovered around yesterday’s U.S. session close of 2889 seen in the S&P 500 cash index.   
• European stock indices CFD futures are mix at this juncture with the FTSE 100 almost unchanged and the German DAX is showing a modest loss of -0.12%.
• Key events and economic data release to take note later will be German ZEW sentiment survey report for Jun and ECB President Draghi’s speech later at 0800 GMT and 1400 GMT.

Macroeconomic Calendar

*Data from Refinitiv. Index names may not reflect tradable instruments and not all markets are available in all regions.