The Bank of Japan surprise of October 31 – the unexpected widening of quantitative monetary expansion – still dominates this beginning of the week. The markets in Tokyo are closed for holidays but the futures on the Nikkei listed in Singapore point to a further rise in prices for tomorrow. Elsewhere in Asia, equity markets are mixed: Shanghai is still up 0,5%, but other markets are weak, and the MSCI Asia Apex 50 is down 0,5%.
In China, the official PMI fell to 50,8, and the Australian dollar suffered, losing 0,3%. However, China's private PMI (HSBC/Markit) for October is up a bit.
The dollar rises again, after the good news on the US economy, which last Friday led to the umpteenth stock market record (both DJ and S&P500). The exchange rate against the euro is at 1,248 and against the yen it was close to 113. As regards the Japanese currency, the divergence in monetary policy between the two sides of the Pacific suggests that the yen exchange rate will weaken further.
Gold suffered from the renewed confidence in the dollar and fell again to 1168 $/ounce. Oil still weak, just above 80 $/b (Brent at 85,6).
