The import numbers released from China early this morning was the last thing the commodity based countries wanted to see, especially after having found some decent optimism in recent trading. The Nikkei suffered the most, losing 1.1% on the day, and that carried forward into late U.S. trading where the futures are currently down a further 0.95%. All European bourses were hit, producing daily losses of between 0.5% – 1% with the DAX the obvious worst performer.
The Dow opened lower but quickly recouped much of that ground for the majority of the session. Toward the close, all Indices tended to drift lower, eventually closing around 0.75% down on the day.
The most talked performing asset was the U.S. dollar – again, against commodity countries. The worst on the day was the Brazilian Real, losing 3.5%, the Russian rouble -2.15%, and Australian dollar -1.5%. The DXY (U.S. Dollar Index) closed higher at 94.78. Gold also finished higher on the day at $1167, but only after it recovered from an early attack that saw it bounce off of the $1151 level.
The fixed-income market was unsure which direction to move in as equities wobbled yet DXY and gold rallied. We did see the TY/RX spread tighten (closing +146bp) as Treasuries were bid. The curve flattened 2/10 (into 142bp) as we saw the belly of the curve outperform the wings. 5s and 10s were both better by 6bp whilst 2’s were -2bp and 30’s -4bp.
