PRETTY QUIET NIGHT with many markets closed today
- Hong Kong: Hang Seng CLOSED
- China CSI 300 -0.68%
- Taiwan KOSPI +0.12%
- India Nifty 50 +0.49%
- Australia ASX CLOSED
- Japan Nikkei -0.08%
- Most European bourses CLOSED today including: UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland
- USD +0.03%
TOP STORIES OVERNIGHT
Iron Ore Surges Past $140 to The Highest Since June 2022-BBG
Iron ore rallied to its highest since June 2022, showing Beijing’s efforts to stem the property market’s decline in recent months may be paying dividends.
Futures in Singapore rose above $140 a ton amid thin trading on Tuesday. Optimism is building that China’s economic recovery and its steel-intensive property sector are finally gaining momentum, after a subdued post-pandemic reopening in the past year disappointed investors.
COMMENTS: Good news for industrial commodities as iron ore is a gauge of the health of the Chinese economy.
Next Year is looking Dovish-BBG
Global markets have been buoyed in recent months as traders bet major central banks including the Federal Reserve will aggressively cut interest rates next year as inflation falls. Bond yields have tumbled while the S&P 500 is nearing a fresh record.
Data released last week showed signs of resilience in US growth while the Fed’s preferred underlying inflation metric barely rose in November. Additional reports Friday showed consumers were also gaining conviction that inflation in the world’s largest economy was on the right track despite a bumpy housing market recovery.
That helped cement investor expectations for earlier and deeper interest rate cuts next year, despite pushback from several Fed policymakers. Swaps traders are betting interest rates will be eased by more than 150 basis points in 2024, double the Fed’s forecast.
US Strikes Targets in Iraq After Drone Attack Injures Troops-BBG
The US military launched strikes on three installations in Iraq targeting what it said is a terrorist group backed by Iran that Washington has accused of a series of attacks on American personnel, including one Monday which left three people injured.
The back-and-forth underscores the risk of the Israel-Hamas war widening into a broader conflagration. Iran said an Israeli air strike in Damascus on Monday killed a senior commander of its Revolutionary Guard. Meanwhile, the US has assembled a coalition of militaries willing to help protect Red Sea shipping lanes after a number of vessels came under attack by Iran-backed Houthi rebels based in Yemen.
Iran backs Hamas and other regional groups. It has denied that it is helping militants to attack commercial ships.
“At President Biden’s direction, US military forces conducted necessary and proportionate strikes on three facilities used by Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups in Iraq,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement late Monday.
Vessel near Yemen said to report drones, explosions in Red Sea-Reuters
Two explosions in the Red Sea were reported by a vessel sailing off the coast of Yemen on Tuesday shortly after two unmanned aircraft were sighted, a British maritime authority said.
The explosions occurred around 5 miles from the vessel in an area of the Red Sea 50 miles from the port of Hodeidah on Yemen’s west coast, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said in an advisory.
The identity of the vessel, details of the cargo onboard or where it was sailing to or had sailed from were not disclosed.
The UKMTO said the vessel was in contact with coalition forces and that the vessel and crew had been reported safe.
The vessel was said to be continuing its voyage.
COMMENTS: Geopolitical risks are escalating
US DATA TODAY
