Asian markets are trading mixed as a batch of key economic data from China basically met expectations. At this time of writing, Nikkei is trading flat just below 17000 handle while Hong Kong HSI is down -0.1%. China GDP rose 6.7% yoy in Q3 versus expectation of 6.7% yoy. Fixed assets investments rose 8.2% yoy in September versus expectation of 8.2% yoy. Retail sales rose 10.7% yoy versus expectation of 10.7% yoy. However, industrial production rose 6.1% yoy, below expectation of 6.4% yoy. Commodity currencies and Sterling are so far the strongest major currencies for the week. Meanwhile, Dollar remains the weakest one, followed by Swiss Franc and Japanese Yen.
BoC rate decision is the main focus today and the central bank is expected to hold interest rate unchanged at 0.50%. Indeed, economists generally expect BoC to stand pat for the rest of the year through to 2017. Stabilization in oil price is seen as a factor for BoC to hold their hands off any further rate cut. While BoC might sound cautious in the accompanying statement, there is little prospect to have drastic change in the language of and its neutral stance. Technically, Canadian dollar would probably wait for WTI crude oil to take out 51.67 resistance decisive and follow.
Elsewhere, UK job data will be the main focus in European session. US will release housing starts and building permits. Fed will also release Beige Book economic report.