Holiday-mode
With most markets closing for Christmas on Wednesday, there isn’t much to report for today’s Asian session. U.S. indices held onto Friday’s closing levels with a small incremental rally, but not enough to push to record levels. Today’s advance meant that the US30 index has climbed for 10 consecutive days, a feat last achieved in July 2017.
China to scale back tariffs from start of next year
Xinhua News in China has reported that the Asian nation will start to shave its import tariffs from January 1. The initial tariff reduction will affect some 859 products ranging from avocados and orange juice to wood and paper products, IT products and certain raw materials used in the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals. These products will be granted preferential tariff rates.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Trump tweeted Friday that he’d had “a very good talk” with China’s Xi about the trade deal. He added that China had already started large-scale purchases of agricultural products and more.
U.S.-centric calendar
The rest of the world seems to be in celebration-mode already as the data calendar is only populated by North American data. U.S. durable goods probably rose 1.5% in November, a faster pace than October’s +0.5% while new home sales for the same month are seen falling 0.5% m/m, worse than the previous month’s 0.7% decline. The only other data comes from Canada’s October GDP growth which is seen rising 0.1%, the same pace as the previous month.