Asia equities start the session trading with mixed price action as the region faces the gains on Wall Street, which saw the S&P 500 hit another record high. The upside in the US equities came after the encouraging weekly US jobless claims data, and post-COVID lows in Challenger Layoffs gave a silver lining to Wednesday’s United States ADP Employment miss ahead of today’s Nonfarm Payrolls report. For fixed-income traders, it was likewise a busy day in rates options trading, with price action trickling across Eurodollar option puts as participants price in more rate hikes reflecting Fed’s Vice-President Clarida’s hawkish comments on Wednesday.
Continuous COVID infections are becoming an essential concern for APAC’s Central Banks. The Reserve Bank of Australia pointed out in its Monetary Policy Statement that the recent outbreaks of the Delta variant across Australia, and the resulting lockdowns, have added a high degree of risk to the outlook for the second half of this year. On the trade front, US business groups representing retailers, chip makers, farmers and others, are calling the White House to restart negotiations with China and cut tariffs on imports. Still, in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, others say tariffs on Chinese imports are a drag on the US economy.
