Negative leads from the US may dampen Asian trades today

Declines are expected across the Asian region today. Consensus estimates are for Chinese growth to continue moderating and possibly slowing to 5% by 2016. Even if that doesn’t occur, the current expectation is one of lower growth assumptions.

Commodities have accordingly adjusted in price with copper taking large declines, last down to around $3.23/lb. Overnight, the S&P500 Index lost 2.1% to 1,151.06 at the close in New York after climbing 0.8% earlier and rallying more than 4% over the previous three sessions.

The Euro weakened 0.2% to $1.3554, erasing a 0.8% advance. Ten-year yields rose two basis points to 1.997%, rallying off recent lows but still at historically depressed levels. Australian miners are expected to take heavy losses today, in response to lower commodity and energy prices.

Canadian stocks were 2% lower overnight in response to commodities selling off.

In Australian corporate news, uranium producer Paladin Energy has successfully placed 59.8m ordinary shares to raise around A$68m. The offering to institutional investors comes at a significant discount when given the large price decline over the past few months, but should ease balance sheet pressures until the uranium price rebounds. This could take a while but the long term fundamentals of uranium and new capacity still being added in nuclear power, even post Fukushima, are all positive for those with a patient time horizon.

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