Markets Overview

US domestic politics remains in focus on Tuesday (5 Dec)as the market continue to watch for extension of the USfederal spending plan to keep the government open (after8 Dec), US tax reform developments, and developments onspecial Counsel Mueller’s Russian investigation probe. TheFed Reserve enters the 1-week blackout period on Tuesahead of its 12/13 Dec FOMC but Fed Reserve will still be infocus as the Senate will vote today (5 Dec, 11pm SG time)on nomination of Jerome Powell as Fed Chair. In Asia, theReserve Bank of Australia will have its final monetary policydecision of 2017 today (11:30am SG time) and RBA is widelyexpected to keep policy rate unchanged.

    The US data docket focus on Tuesday (5 Dec) will be onNov ISM non-manufacturing survey and October tradenumbers. The Australian data docket is quite substantialtoday (including Oct retail sales data) but the data releasesare likely to be overshadowed by the RBA decision. As forthe rest of the developed economies, we have the privatesector services PMI surveys for Japan, UK, Eurozone andits constituent economies, and October retail sales data fromthe Eurozone.

    This morning, South Korea just reported a stronger Novforeign reserves and Oct current account balance. TheNikkei Singapore and Hong Kong PMI will be reported at8.30am. Then, China’s Caixin PMI (composite and services)will be released at 9.45am while the Nikkei India (compositeand services) will come out at 1pm. We are also expectingNov inflation numbers from the Philippines (exp: 3.3% y/y,prev: 3.5% y/y) and Taiwan (exp: -0.10% y/y, prev: -0.32% y/y). Markets in Thailand will be closed for the King’s Birthdayholiday.