Plenty Of Reasons For Caution

A distinctive risk-off feel to start a new trading week, with the deepening COVID-19 lockdowns in mainland Europe & the UK headlining news flow over the weekend. Positive source report musings on the Brexit front (albeit sprinkled with a fair amount of caution) have done little for GBP to start the week, given the broader risk-off feel and economic impact of the impending 4-week (minimum) lockdown, which is set to get underway later this week.

• Further afield, the U.S. election remains front and centre, with little in the way of meaningful betting market movement re: the prospect of a "Blue Wave" scenario, while polling data points to an advantage for Biden across most of the major battleground states. Still, watchers remain cognisant of the "shy Trump supporters" and the shock of 2016 remains fresh in the memory.
• Oil is struggling on the back of idiosyncratic matters outlined earlier, in addition to the broader lockdown measures implemented in Europe & the UK.
• Manufacturing PMI data headlines in Asia-Pac hours. This comes after Chinese official PMIs were released over the weekend. The official surveys were virtually bang on expectations, showing steady rates of expansion vs. the previous month. On the manufacturing side, total new orders and new export orders expanded at steady rates vs. prev., while the employment metric continued to point to contraction.