Asian markets gain strongly on Monday

Good Morning,

- The Euro test again a 28-month lows and hit 1.2360 level in Asia trade, as Friday European Central Bank President Mario Draghi surprised by declaring his commitment to fighting deflation.

- Asian markets gain strongly on Monday with shares in China hitting three-year highs as the prospect of further policy stimulus in China and Europe whetted risk appetites globally.

- ECB’s Nowotny says EU investment package should provide short-term stimulus, and improve potential growth in long term, period of below-trend business investment to weigh on European productivity growth. Eastern Europe still offering best growth in EU, fiscal, eco, and political union still needed for euro. EU convergence neither automatic nor irreversible.

- Mario Draghi is about to find out just how urgent his call for action has become. One week after the European Central Bank president vowed to revive inflation “as fast as possible,” policy makers will receive a glimpse on just how feeble cost pressures are now in the euro region. Economists forecast data on Nov. 28 will show consumer-price growth matching the weakest since 2009. That would add to the drumroll for a stimulus debate at the Dec. 4 meeting as panels of officials study possible new measures and prepare to cut their economic outlook.

- ECB's Constancio: Europe is not at risk of sliding into "full deflation" but the current rate of inflation is dangerously low. Many fear the euro zone, where annual inflation fell far short of the ECB's medium-term target in October, could be set for a Japanese-style lost decade of deflation and recession. During a debate in central Italy, Constancio said he did not think "that in Europe there is the risk of falling into full deflation" because nominal salaries would have to fall in all member countries "and this cannot happen".

- Swiss National Bank President Thomas Jordan took to a church pulpit to warn voters that passing an initiative requiring it to hold a fixed portion of its assets in gold risked harming the economy. “The initiative is dangerous because it would weaken the SNB,” he said, speaking in the town of Uster, Switzerland. It “would make it considerably harder for us to intervene with determination in a crisis situation and fulfill our stability mandate,” he said. Switzerland holds a national referendum on Nov. 30 that would require the SNB to hold at least 20 percent of its assets in gold, up from 8 percent currently, and never sell any.

- The People's Bank of China cut one-year benchmark lending rates by 40 basis points to 5.6 percent late of Friday, taking by surprise market participants who had predicted more covert policy easing measures such as liquidity injections.

- China's leadership and central bank are ready to cut interest rates again and also loosen lending restrictions, concerned that falling prices could trigger a surge in debt defaults, business failures and job losses, said sources involved in policy-making. Friday's surprise cut in rates, the first in more than two years, reflects a change of course by Beijing and the central bank, which had persisted with modest stimulus measures before finally deciding last week that a bold monetary policy step was required to stabilize the world's second-largest economy.

- With Russia's economy battered by economic sanctions and plunging oil prices, President Vladimir Putin has allowed the central bank to administer strong medicine, sharply raising interest rates even as it freed the Ruble to float.

- Oil edged up ahead of a key meeting of OPEC on Thursday amid uncertainty on whether producers would agree on a meaningful cut in output to support prices.

Have a nice Week !