Chinese stocks opened on a rally on Thursday, catching up to a global bull run after a week-long holiday, while Asian stocks halted their rise, taking a step down to garner profits and assess the new free trade deal TTP. Chinese Shanghai stocks rose 3.6%. While the Japanese Nikkei lost 0.7% after weak Japanese machinery orders data and a stronger Yen rattled the market.

U.S. and European stocks ended yesterday on a high note, after a resurgent biotechnology sector and a strong British manufacturing data, which lifted Sterling up.

Euro recouped some of its losses on Thursday after weak German industrial production data hammered it yesterday, it last traded at 134.93 against the Yen, against Sterling it rose to 0.7352. Against the Dollar it stabilized, reaching 1.1259.

The Yen kept heating up against the dollar, rising for the third session in a row to 119.83. The Yen was given a heart after BoJ kept its policy steady earlier in the week.

The Sterling halted its rally against the major currencies, falling to 1.5312 against the dollar, against the Yen it fell to 183.51 after a week-long rise led it to a two-week high against the Yen yesterday.

Australian and Canadian dollars halted their meteoric rises against the dollar. The Canadian dollar fell to 1.3066 after reaching a near 7-weak peak earlier. The Australian dollar fell to 0.7175 after hitting a formidable resistance range reached in September.

Crude oil fell yesterday on a profit-taking frenzy, also facing important resistance lines. Brent fell to $51.42 a barrel. U.S. oil fell to $47.89 a barrel.

Spot gold fell 0.54% on Thursday, or $6,32, fetching $1,142.70 an ounce. Silver fell 2.91%, or 47 cents, to $15.62 an ounce.

An array of economic reports is coming out today, most noticeably the German trade balance report for August, forecast to have a surplus of 20.2B.

For U.S., unemployment claims report is coming out, forecast to have fallen to 276K from the previous week's 277K. Also coming from U.S. is the natural gas storage report for past week, forecast to have risen to 101B from 98B.

From Australia, home loans report for August is coming out, forecast to have risen a sharp 4.9% month-on month. For Canada, housing starts report for September is coming out, important for measuring economic health, it's forecast to have fallen to 202K from 217K. Also from Canada, the NHPI report is slated for today, which is measuring the change in selling prices for new homes, important for housing industry's health, it's forecast to have risen 0.2% in August from 0.1% in July.