Trading patterns offer few surprises

Daily update

South Korea’s early October export data showed strength when adjusted for differences in working days. As is now standard, semiconductor exports led this export surge. Auto exports were weakened by US tariffs, but trade with the rest of the world continues to be more or less as normal.
The UK is offering fiscal data. This is of interest because of the imminent government budget, and the hyper-fixation of the media on the UK’s fiscal position (which, objectively, is fairly OK by international standards). However, there has been a habit of revising the fiscal borrowing numbers higher over the course of this year.
The Canadian province of British Colombia has announced a ban on crypto miners connecting to its power grid, and will restrict electricity use by artificial intelligence data centers. The aim is to prioritize power use for economic activity that actually generates something, and activity which is likely to produce jobs. AI is a tradeoff between using limited resources today and the promise of future economic return.
Argentina and the US signed their USD 20bn currency swap agreement yesterday. The Argentine peso hit an all-time low in response. US Treasury Secretary Bessent’s currency market plays are currently costing US taxpayers money, but (so far) the losses are limited.