In the aftermath of that rare day on Wall Street when another record is not struck, Asian markets, which were down 0,7% yesterday (on the MSCI Asia Pacific regional index) are roughly stable. The index in Shanghai is at yesterday's levels: the link with Hong Kong has not lived up to its promises, and after filling up with transactions (up to the maximum allowed) on the first day, the following days have seen only modest volumes.
The Nikkei, on the other hand, continues to rise, albeit slightly, on the wave of an apparently unstoppable fall in the yen, which has largely passed 118 against the dollar and is approaching 119. The first results of the depreciation of the Japanese currency, which began a year ago, they can be seen in the export data: in October it rose by 9,6% compared to the previous year.
The dollar strengthens against the yen and gold (which drops to 1179 $/ounce) but not against the euro, which rises to 1,255 in the early Japanese afternoon. The mixed performance of the greenback is also related to concerns, which emerged in the Fed minutes, about deflation in the US, which seems to recommend keeping rates low for longer than the market estimated. WTI crude recovers slightly: 74,7 $/b. S&P500 and Footsie stock futures were slightly negative.
