➤ Asian stocks track overnight gains on Wall Street; European equities slump.
➤ Sterling falls as UK inflation slows more than expected.
➤ European Council meeting begins, with Brexit on the agenda.
➤ U.S. Federal Open Market Committee's meeting minutes in focus.
Wall Street is set to open lower, paring yesterday's gains from bumper corporate earnings, while Treasurys were stable ahead of details from the U.S. Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting.
The S&P 500 closed 2.15% higher and the Nasdaq Composite index surged 2.89% yesterday, as third-quarter earnings from Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Johnson & Johnson and other companies beat expectations and amid a slew of upbeat U.S. economic data. Netflix Inc.'s shares jumped in after-hours trading and are up more than 11% as of 7 a.m. ET in pre-market trading after the company's third-quarter subscribers growth exceeded its own projections.
Asian markets tracked the gains, with the Shanghai SE Composite index closing 0.60% higher and Japan's Nikkei 225 index advancing 1.29%. Hong Kong's markets were closed for a local holiday.
However, the positive trades failed to extend to Europe, where Germany's DAX index dipped 0.36%, France's CAC ticked down 0.07% and Italy's FTSE MIB dropped 0.25%. The FTSE 100 edged 0.14% higher.
Ten-year Treasury yields were broadly steady at 3.17%, before the Fed releases the minutes from its latest monetary policy meeting, and after President Donald Trump took another shot at the central bank over rising interest rates. Investors will watch closely for context surrounding the removal of "accommodative" from the Fed's September monetary policy statement, according to TD Securities.
German Bunds rose as 10-year yields dipped to 0.48%, while Italian government bonds with the same maturity were steady at 3.468%.
The dollar spot index, which measures the dollar against a basket of currencies, rose 0.17% to $95.2140. Sterling depreciated 0.39% versus the dollar as annual inflation in the U.K. slowed more than expected in September, while the euro dipped 0.22% as European leaders gather in Brussels for a two-day summit, with Brexit, migration, internal security and external relations among the topics of discussion.
The Chinese yuan depreciated 0.24% against the dollar as investors await the U.S. Treasury's biannual foreign exchange report this week, with projections that China will not be labeled as a currency manipulator. If so, Chinese stocks and the yuan would rally "due in large part to the improved prospects of a trade deal that would allow [the U.S. and China] to start dismantling tariffs," Brown Brothers Harriman wrote. "This would also be a net positive for [emerging markets], since China is such a huge part of global trade and the global supply chain."
Brent crude oil fell 0.38% to $81.10 per barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange, ahead of the U.S. Energy Information Administration's petroleum status report. Gold dipped 0.15% to $1,229.20 per ounce.
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Green bonds need to overcome growing pains to have real impact, experts say
Netflix Q3 earnings, subscriber beat comes at cost, competition
Ex-central banker Dombret: Transition period makes no sense in no-deal Brexit
London insurers will avoid hard Brexit claims calamity, says IUA CEO
The day ahead:
8:30 a.m. ET — U.S. housing starts (Econoday consensus: 1.216 million)
8:30 a.m. ET — Canada manufacturing sales (Econoday consensus: -0.7% monthly)
10:30 a.m. ET — U.S. EIA petroleum status report
12:10 p.m. ET — U.S. Fed's Lael Brainard speaks
2 p.m. ET — U.S. FOMC minutes