Morning Briefing: Trump in focus again as health-care bill delayed

Trump in focus again as health-care bill delayed

The ability of the US president to push through his policies is once again the talk of the markets Wednesday. The delayed healthcare reform bill in the US Senate has raised questions among investors and most world markets are lower.

Oil prices have stabilized overnight but remain subdued over supply glut concerns.

Asian markets closed mostly lower with Sydney the outperformer of the session with gains for its materials, financials and energy sectors giving the main ASX index a strong finish.

European indexes are trending lower although London’s FTSE is showing more resilience for its lower exposure to the policies of the European Central Bank.

Wall Street and Toronto are expected to open flat. BoC governor Stephen Poloz will address the ECB forum later. US oil inventories data is due along with home sales data.
 

	Latest	1 month ago	1 year ago
North America (previous session)
US Dow Jones	21,310.66 (-0.46 per cent)	+1.09 per cent	+22.41 per cent
TSX Composite	15,281.22 (-0.23 per cent)	-0.88 per cent	+10.39 per cent
Europe (at 5.00am ET)
UK FTSE	7,420.69 (-0.18 per cent)	-1.68 per cent	+20.85 per cent
German DAX	12,592.34 (-0.62 per cent)	-0.08 per cent	+33.29 per cent
Asia (at close)
China CSI 300	3,646.17 (-0.78 per cent)	+4.76 per cent	+16.25 per cent
Japan Nikkei	20,130.41 (-0.47 per cent)	+2.25 per cent	+31.37 per cent
Other Data (at 5.00am ET)
Oil (Brent)	Oil (WTI)	Gold	Can. Dollar
46.62 (-0.06 per cent)	44.08 (-0.36 per cent)	1252.40 (+0.44 per cent)	U$0.7615
			Aus. Dollar
			U$0.7598

Japan to sign trade deal with EU

Japan and the European Union are hoping to seal a free trade deal amid growing protectionist measures across the world.

Talks, which began in 2013, have gathered pace in the last week, Reuters reports, as EU and Japanese officials aim to secure a deal on autos, food and more.

A provisional deal could be signed as early as next week.