The Shanghai Composite was the only major stock index to see gains today, regaining 2.3% of Monday’s impressive 7% loss. Other leading indices across Europe, Asia and the US have seen losses in today’s session as traders absorb another New Year surprise, namely claims from North Korea that it successfully tested a hydrogen bomb.
the December ADP survey of private payrolls was very strong, widely beating expectations at +257K and possibly setting up for another excellent US employment report on Friday. The consensus view for December non-farm payrolls is +200K.
The Fed
Fischer stated that it was his own opinion that the Fed would do about four rate hikes in 2016, but also warned it was still too early to definitively say how many rate hike there would be this year.
WTI is down 1.5% on the session to $34.40, while Brent is testing 11-year lows below $34.50, down nearly 5% today. Traders appear to be ignoring the big drawdowns seen in the DoE and API inventory reports, to focus on the strengthening dollar and weak economic data.
A press report out yesterday afternoon warned that Apple is expected to reduce the output on its iPhone 6s and 6s Plus devices by about 30% between January and March.