ECONOMY
On Tuesday, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was virtually flat, just a hair away from the highest level since Sept. 21. Asian trading in range ahead of a U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting, hovering near six-month highs, while sterling was choppy as the speaker of Britain’s parliament banned another vote on same Brexit deal.
Overnight U.S. indexes rose, lifted by banks and tech names, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq Composite adding between 0.3% and 0.4%.
With signs of global economic growth slowing, traders were focused on the Federal Reserve, which is kicking off its two-day policy meeting on later in the day, for clues about the likely path of U.S. borrowing costs.
Also expected is more detail on a plan to stop cutting the Fed’s holdings of nearly $3.8 trillion in bonds.
May’s Brexit plans were thrown into further turmoil on Monday when the speaker of parliament ruled that she could not put her divorce deal to a new vote unless it was re-submitted in fundamentally different form.
May has only two days to win approval for her deal to leave the European Union if she wants to go to a summit with the bloc’s leaders on Thursday with something to offer them in return for more time.
The European Union's trade surplus with the United States and its deficit with China both increased in January, serving as potential fuel for trade conflicts between the world's largest economies.
FOREX
The dollar index against a basket of six major currencies barely moved and was at 95.93.
On Tuesday , The pound trading at 1.3266 found some ground after slipping to as low as $1.3183 overnight as lawmakers cast doubt on Prime Minister Theresa May’s third attempt to get parliament to back her Brexit deal.
The Japanese yen edged up 0.1% to 111.27 yen to the dollar.
The euro was almost flat at $1.1334.
GBP/JPY is mildly bid near 147.60 during early Tuesday. The pair has been struggling with the overall risk-on sentiment and Brexit developments. Next up in the traders’ radar will be British jobs data and progress over Brexit.
Taiwan Dollar and South Korean won firm despite other Asian currency is flat ahead of FOMC.
COMMODITY
Oil prices hovered just below 2019 highs early on Tuesday, supported by ongoing supply cuts led by producer club OPEC.
OPEC cancels April meeting, extends cuts until June
Rising U.S. output, economic slowdown cap prices
Shanghai crude jumps above Brent
Gold prices rose for a third consecutive session on Tuesday as the dollar weakened on expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will maintain a dovish tone at its monetary policy meeting this week.
Arabica coffee futures on ICE fell on Monday, approaching last week's 13-year low as the market struggled to absorb excess supplies, while raw sugar prices rose to their highest in more than two weeks.
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