Markets Overview

HIGHLIGHTS AHEAD

    First up in focus will be on Australia’s latest set of labour market data(9.30am Singapore time), expected to show 10k gain in employment,but an uptick in the unemployment rate to 6.1%. The European dataflow includes the UK’s June industrial production report and June factoryorders in Germany.

    Meanwhile, markets now look ahead to initial jobless claims data onThursday but this is clearly going to be overshadowed in advance ofthe employment report on Friday. The Bloomberg consumer comfortindex for the week ending 2 August will also be released.

    The data calendar is light in Asia today.

    On Friday, Taiwan’s July import and export are expected to remain incontraction at -12.9% y/y and -10.5% y/y. Malaysia’s foreign reservesas at end-July will be reported. Foreign reserves fell by US$5bn toUS$100.5bn as at mid-July (vs. -US$0.9bn in June), marking the lowestlevel of reserves since September 2010. We expect reserves to fall belowUS$100bn by end of this month amid heavier selling pressure andcentral bank intervention to smoothen out excessive volatility.

    On Saturday, attention will be on China’s July trade data. In USDterms, export is expected to slip back into contraction of -1.5% y/y aftera 2.8% growth in June. Import is forecast to contract by -8.0% y/y inJuly compared to -6.1% y/y in June. More Chinese data will be releasedin the following week.

    In Singapore, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will deliver the NationalDay Message on 8 August (Saturday) and the National Day Rally will beheld on 23 August.