Daily Market Commentary 17th November 2023

Tensions eased on the Geo-Political front at least, following a meeting of the President of China and the US President, at the APEC summit in San Francisco. The two economic and military super-powers agreed to de-escalate rising tensions, by resuming high level military cooperation, once again. This is a step in the right direction, but Taiwan remains a serious point of disagreement and possible conflict. US Manufacturing and Industrial Production remained heavily negative, following the almost collapse in Europe, which is hitting global commodity demand. The US Dollar was steady, with the EUR trading 1.0850, while the GBP held 1.2400.

Commodity currencies felt the pressure of falling commodity demand, with the NZD falling back below 0.6000, while the AUD headed back towards 0.6450. Australian employment data was steady, with the headline Unemployment rate pushing up slightly to 3.7%. Japanese trade data was weak, with a 12.5% fall in imports, which follows a string of weak economic data. This does not bode well for commodity countries, although Chinese economic activity, appears to be improving.