Asian equities are generally lower today as worries over China's economy and Fed's rate hike persist. Major indices follow China down as the Shanghai composite index drops again, down over -3% at the time of writing. HK HSI is down -1% while Japanese Nikkei is down -1.2%. In other markets, WTI crude oil is struggling in tight range around 42 while gold is also trading around 1110/20. In the currency markets, Canadian dollar recovers mildly today in spite of weakness in crude oil. Aussie is so far the weakest one as weighed down by China. European majors are mixed with weakness in Euro but strength in Sterling. Dollar is mixed while weakness is seen in Yen despite risk aversion.
Minutes of the July 28-29 FOMC meeting are the major focus for today. Attention is mainly on whether policy makers generally believe that September is the appropriate timing for the first rate hike. That could be indicated by including languages like "many members" believe rate hike was near. Nonetheless, the condition that "some further improvement" in the labor market, as included in the prior FOMC statement, would likely be also included in the minutes.
Talking about rate hike, BoE is expected to raise interest rates following the Fed. There were even some minor speculations that BoE's hike could come before Fed's. BoE policy maker David Miles said that the turning point in rates is coming "pretty soon" even though "we're not fully there yet". He also said that "what we've seen in last few years is thankfully a recovery in consumer spending, but not runaway consumer spending." Meanwhile, "because the path of inflation will itself probably be gradual, I think the path of interest rates will also probably be gradual."
In Eurozone, ECB lowered the Emergency Liquidity Assistance for Greek banks to EUR 89.7b, down from around EUR 91b. The move was driven by request from Bank of Greece due to improving liquidity conditions. German lawmakers are expected to vote in favor of Greece's third bailout today. Finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble is expected to speak for the government in the parliament. Yesterday, the parliaments of Austria, Estonia and Spain voted to approve the bailout.
On the data front, New Zealand PPI dropped -0.3% qoq, -0.2% qoq in Q2 versus expectation of -0.5% qoq, -0.2% yoy. Australia Westpac leading index was flat in July. Japan trade deficit widened to JPY -0.37T in July while all industry activity index rose 0.3% mom in June. Eurozone current account will be released in European session. US CPI will be featured in US session.