The U.S. Dollar maintained strong gains on the last trading day of October. The U.S. Dollar index was seen rising to a two year high briefly on Wednesday.
The Bank of Japan left interest rates and its QE program unchanged at its meeting yesterday. In the press conference, BoJ Governor Kuroda signaled that the central bank was ready to do more if the economic risks due to the trade disputes between the U.S. and China intensified.
The central bank also slightly lowered its forecasts for GDP and inflation for the fiscal year of 2018 and 2019.
Data from the Eurozone covered the German retail sales which rose just 0.1% on the month and missed estimates of a 0.5% increase. The previous month’s data was also revised lower to show a 0.3% decline.
Flash GDP estimates from Spain showed a 0.6% increase on the quarter matching estimates.
There was some good news on the inflation front as headline CPI was seen rising 2.2% on the year in October. This was in line with estimates and inflation slightly accelerated from 2.1% increase previously. Core CPI was however lagging, rising 1.1% as expected.
Canada’s GDP for August showed a 0.1% increase which beat estimates of a flat print. This marked a seventh consecutive month of GDP gains for Canada.
The European trading session will open to the manufacturing PMI figures from the UK. The Bank of England will be holding its monetary policy meeting later in the day. No changes are expected to the interest rates at today’s meeting.
The NY trading session will see the release of the ISM manufacturing PMI. Economists forecast that manufacturing activity as measured by ISM will ease to 59.0 in October from 59.8 the month before. Construction spending data is also due and is expected to show a 0.2% increase on the month.
