• The U.S. dollar followed Wall Street lower on Friday, falling from the two-month high hit earlier in the day after news of stronger-than-expected third-quarter gross domestic product.
U.S. stocks were off their lows late Friday, but remained down for the day, as concerns about a slew of disappointing earning forecasts persisted, showing how tariffs, rising wages and higher borrowing costs as well as jitters over geopolitical events are hurting companies.
“People are still worried about the U.S. earnings season,” said Thierry Wizman, global interest rates and currencies strategist at Macquarie Group.
The dollar index fell as much as 0.57 percent against a basket of six rivals as Wall Street sold off, last at 96.43. The move ended a losing streak for the euro, which has fallen 1.85 percent this month on pessimism about Italian budget talks - and fear of contagion across the bloc. Against the euro, the dollar fell as much as 0.71 percent, last at $1.140.
• The U.S. economy slowed less than expected in the third quarter, the Commerce Department reported, as the strongest consumer spending in nearly four years and a surge in inventory investment offset a tariff-related drop in soybean exports. Net exports took 1.8 percent off of the GDP figure, said Greg Anderson, global head of FX strategy at BMO Capital Markets.
• The U.S. economy slowed less than expected in the third quarter as a tariff-related drop in soybean exports was partially offset by the strongest consumer spending in nearly four years, keeping growth on track to hit the Trump administration’s 3 percent target this year.
Gross domestic product increased at a 3.5 percent annualized rate also supported by a surge in inventory investment and solid government spending, the Commerce Department said on Friday in its first estimate of third-quarter GDP growth.
While that was a slowdown from a 4.2 percent pace in the second quarter, it still exceeded the economy’s growth potential, which economists put at about 2 percent. But there were red flags to the economic expansion that is now in its ninth year and the second longest on record.
• U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Sunday that he had met Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister and called for a transparent investigation into the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan shared details of the case of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in bilateral talks during a four-way summit with the leaders of Russia, France and Germany, he said on Saturday.
Erdogan, speaking at a joint news conference following a summit in Istanbul, said Saudi Arabia needed to say who sent to Turkey the 18 people believed to be responsible for Khashoggi’s killing. He also said Turkey valued the conclusion of discussions between Turkish and Saudi prosecutors, who are due to meet on Sunday.
• The leaders of Russia, Germany, France and Turkey stressed the importance on Saturday of a lasting ceasefire in Syria, and said a committee to create a new constitution should meet by the end of the year.
• There is no risk of contagion from Italy’s budget crisis in the European Union but the euro zone is not prepared enough to face a new economic crisis, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told daily Le Parisien on Sunday.
• Brazil's Supreme Electoral Tribunal has declared far-right congressman Jair Bolsonaro the next president of Latin America's biggest country.
With 96 percent of ballots counted, Bolsonaro has 55.5 percent of the votes. Leftist Fernando Haddad of the Workers' Party (PT) has 44.5 percent.
Bolsonaro pledged to reform government finances and reorient diplomatic relations in his first public comments on Sunday after winning the polarizing run-off vote.
Bolsonaro said he would begin a virtuous cycle of lower deficits, shrinking public debts and lower interest rates. He also pledged to align Brazil with more advanced countries that can offer the benefits of trade and technology, reversing what he called a recent political bias in diplomatic relations.
• The Bank of Japan will consider making a slight change to the timing of its government debt purchases to encourage more trading activity between financial institutions, the Asahi newspaper reported on Saturday.
• Oil prices rose on Friday, supported by expectations that sanctions on Iran would tighten global supplies, but futures posted a weekly drop as a slump in stock markets and concerns about trade wars clouded the fuel demand outlook.
Brent crude LCOc1 futures rose 73 cents, or 1 percent, to settle at $77.62 a barrel. The global benchmark marked a weekly loss of about 2.7 percent and is down about $10 in three weeks.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 futures rose 26 cents, or 0.4 percent, to end at $67.59 a barrel. It posted a weekly loss of about 2.3 percent.
Reference: Reuters, CNBC
Thai
Eng