Australia

Australian shares are set to open flat after Wall Street ended mixed ahead of US jobs and GDP data coming this week.

ASX futures were down 6 points as of 7:00am on Wednesday, pointing to a flat open.

US stocks tried to shake off Monday’s losses, with major indices reporting mixed results ahead of key US jobs and GDP data expected this week.

The S&P 500 fell around 0.25%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down 0.07%. The Nasdaq Composite declined around 0.70%, and the Russell 2000 gained around 0.37%.

Investors are anxiously watching for data, including US Bureau of Labor Statistics job openings data on Wednesday and November payroll data on Friday. Investors are also looking forward to US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s scheduled speech at the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at Brookings on Wednesday for an idea of the central bank’s interest rate direction.

“It’s a data-rich period of time over the course of the next 10 to 14 days,” said Bill Northey, senior investment director at U.S. Bank to CNBC, adding that it will help investors and policymakers see “what is necessary” when it comes to slow economic growth and bring inflation down.

In commodity markets, Brent crude oil gained 0.35% to US$83.48 barrel, gold gained 0.45% to US$1,749.27.

In local bond markets, the yield on Australian 2 Year government bonds rose to 3.16% while the 10 Year rose to 3.60%. Overseas, the yield on 2 Year US Treasury notes rose to 4.48% and the yield on the 10 Year US Treasury notes fell to 3.75%.

The Australian dollar hit 66.76 US cents up from the previous close of 69.50. The Wall Street Journal Dollar Index, which tracks the US dollar against 16 other currencies edged down to 99.38.

Asia

China stocks reversed early yesterday’s losses related to protests around the continuing zero-COVID policy, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gaining 2.11%to 3149, Shenzhen Composite rising 2.14% to 2016 and ChiNext rising 1.78% to 2339. Traders may be speculating that a change to COVID policy in China may be coming, especially amidst a drop in infections reported for the first time in a week.

Hong Kong shares fell, with the Hang Seng index down 1.63%, recouping losses after opening down around 4%. Tech stocks were particularly hard hit, with the Hang Seng index down around 2.07%. Authorities in Hong Kong have reported a rise in COVID vaccination rates for seniors.

Japanese stocks ended lower as well, with the Nikkei 225 Index down around 0.48%. Power, shipbuilding and steel sectors led the losses.

Europe

European stocks closed slightly lower as investors remained cautious about COVID policy unrest in China. The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 ended flat, the German DAX lost 0.19% and the French CAC 40 closed flat. Basic resources sectors added 2.7% while the chemicals sector lost 1.7%.

London’s FTSE 100 closed up 0.51% to 7512 points. The UK gilt market is “not back to normal” after the Bank of England’s actions on Sep. 28, said Governor Andrew Bailey to a lawmakers’ committee Tuesday. The gilt market was “within an hour of having a severe problem” when the bank intervened, he said.

North America

US stocks tried to shake off Monday’s losses, with major indices reporting mixed results ahead of key US jobs and GDP data expected this week.

The S&P 500 fell around 0.25%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down 0.07%. The Nasdaq Composite declined around 0.70%, and the Russell 2000 gained around 0.37%.

Investors are anxiously watching for data, including US Bureau of Labor Statistics job openings data on Wednesday and November payroll data on Friday. Investors are also looking forward to US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s scheduled speech at the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at Brookings on Wednesday for an idea of the central bank’s interest rate direction.

“It’s a data-rich period of time over the course of the next 10 to 14 days,” said Bill Northey, senior investment director at U.S. Bank to CNBC, adding that it will help investors and policymakers see “what is necessary” when it comes to slow economic growth and bring inflation down.

Northley said portfolios are currently being positioned “more defensively,” and being modestly overweighted to short-duration, high-quality fixed income securities, which can include bonds and bills. He recommends being underweight on global equities.