Breakfast Bites - Retaliation

Markets calmer in spite of escalations; China's Retail Sales; 5 Central Banks this week

Rise and shine everyone.

Futures are looking better this morning, despite the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. There’s been retaliation from Iran and the situation has escalated somewhat. Plenty of flights still delayed. I saw videos of people stranded in Sharjah Airport for almost 3 days now (Sharjah is another city in the UAE).

The earlier spike in oil prices is reversing fast. Nevertheless, prices still remain above $70/bbl.

Asian markets opened on a relatively upbeat note this morning, with Japan’s Nikkei and South Korea’s Kospi leading the region higher, both up around 1.3%. However, performance across the rest of the region was more subdued, with Hong Kong, China, and Australia largely flat.

In other news, Taiwan took a major step that could heighten tensions with Beijing, adding Chinese tech giants Huawei and SMIC to its export control list. And, shares of Nippon Steel surged as much as 5% in early trading after President Trump issued an executive order late Friday approving its acquisition of US Steel. While the move was seen as a win for the Japanese steelmaker, gains later faded to around 2% as questions remain over how much operational control it will actually have in the US.