Morning Briefing: Markets mostly lower, oil rebounds on Qatar

Markets mostly lower, oil rebounds on Qatar

Equity markets have started the week in a negative mood as several issues dominate including the London terrorist attack and Arab countries cutting their diplomatic ties with Qatar over links to terrorism.

The Qatar issue has led to a rise in oil prices overnight, the country is also a major producer of natural gas. Six countries have so far withdrawn diplomatic relations: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, Libya and Yemen.

Asian markets closed lower despite positive PMI data from Japan and China.

European indexes are awaiting this week’s meeting of the ECB and are also eyeing the UK general election Thursday. Mixed PMI data shows stronger figures for Germany, while France, Italy and the UK all posted weaker-than-expected figures. Frankfurt’s DAX is leading the region’s markets but has slipped back from an early surge.

Wall Street and Toronto are expected to open flat. US PMI data is due.
 

	Latest	1 month ago	1 year ago
North America (previous session)
US Dow Jones	21,206.29 (+0.29 per cent)	+0.95 per cent	+19.09 per cent
TSX Composite	15,442.75 (-0.18 per cent)	-0.89 per cent	+8.55 per cent
Europe (at 5.00am ET)
UK FTSE	7,534.95 (-0.17 per cent)	+3.25 per cent	+21.34 per cent
German DAX	12,822.94 (+1.25 per cent)	+0.83 per cent	+26.92 per cent
Asia (at close)
China CSI 300	3,468.75 (-0.51 per cent)	+2.55 per cent	+8.76 per cent
Japan Nikkei	20,170.82 (-0.03 per cent)	+3.73 per cent	+21.20 per cent
Other Data (at 5.00am ET)
Oil (Brent)	Oil (WTI)	Gold	Can. Dollar
50.31 (+0.72 per cent)	48.03 (+0.78 per cent)	1283.90 (+0.29 per cent)	U$0.7427
			Aus. Dollar
			U$0.7478

Canada just beat the US in this export market

Canadian pork exporters have overtaken those in the US as the largest suppliers of the meat to China.
The US has dominated North American pork exports to China over the past two decades but a sharp rise in
Canadian exports in the first quarter of 2017 tipped the balance.

Reuters reports that Canadian farmers have almost entirely stopped using growth drug ractopamine which is still used in around half of US herds; the drug is banned in China.

The Chinese market is a lucrative market for pork as consumers buy cuts which are not popular in the west.