Equities Touch Six Week Highs as Stimulus Deal Nears

US equity futures hit their best levels in six weeks as US lawmakers re-invigorated their efforts to strike a fiscal stimulus deal ahead of the looming Presidential election. Director of the NEC Larry Kudlow stated that Trump had approved a revised stimulus package and would "like to do a deal" - comments that prompted a flight to riskier assets and boosted US Treasury yields. This all worked against the USD, which was the poorest performer in G10 Friday. AUD, NZD were buoyed by the risk on mood, with AUD/USD countering bearish signals seen at the beginning of the week.

The coming week will likely get off to a slow start given the US holidays on Monday, but focus will swiftly turn to the looming Brexit deal deadline on Oct 15th, UK & Australian jobs numbers, the German ZEW survey, US CPI & retail sales figures and trade balance data from China.

Speeches are due from BoE's Bailey, ECB's Lagarde, RBA's Lowe, BoC's Lane and there are no fewer than 15 Fed speeches.