Sometimes cutting corporate taxes by 20 percentage points just isn’t enough to set investor hearts racing.

US President Donald Trump’s economic team unveiled what they called the biggest tax cut in US history on Wednesday, proposing a sharp reduction in corporate taxes from 35 per cent to 15 per cent but offering very little in the way of detail on their plans with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Markets responded with a collective “meh”, with stocks on Wall Street and the dollar both giving up earlier gains to leave the S&P 500 down 0.1 per cent. The euro edged back above $1.09 as Treasuries rallied following an earlier sell-off in the wake of the first round of voting in France’s presidential election. Oil prices retreated again after the latest US fuel inventories report.

In Asia Pacific equities, futures tip the S&P/ASX 200 to open flat in Sydney, while Tokyo’s Topix is set to dip 0.6 per cent, and in Hong Kong the Hang Seng is expected to climb 0.2 per cent at the open.

Corporate earnings out today include Nomura Holdings, NTT Docomo, Nintendo, Capcom, Kikkoman, Koei Tecmo, Tohoku Electric, China Merchants Bank, Panahome, PetroChina, China Construction Bank, Sinopec, China Life Insurance, China Telecom, Fanuc, Oriental Land, and Beijing Tongrentang Chinese Medicine.

The economic calendar for Thursday is putting it all on red (all times Hong Kong):

  • 07.00: South Korea GDP
  • 09.30: Japan industrial profits
  • The Bank of Japan’s interest rates decision Macau’s unemployment rate is also expected out today.
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