Greek Election, Japanese Holiday, and Mixed Markets
September 21, 2015
Syriza, the Leftest party of Greek Prime Minister Tsipras will command about 155 of 300 parliamentary seats with its coalition partner after Sunday’s election that drew a low voter turnout. This was the result the rest of Europe desired, but a potential for the Greek debt crisis to flame anew persists because promised fiscal actions may not be implemented.
Japanese markets were closed for Respect for the Aged Day.
U.S. stocks fell sharply last Friday in the aftermath of the Fed’s decision to delay rate normalization and Yellen’s voiced concern about emerging economies.
Stocks today rose nearly 2% in China but fell 2.0% in Australia, 1.8% in Taiwan, 1.6% in South Korea, 0.8% in Hong Kong and 0.6% in New Zealand. In Europe, equities are down 0.8% in Germany and 0.2% in the U.K. but up 0.6% in France and Italy, 0.7% in Switzerland and 0.0.3% in Spain.
The dollar climbed 0.8% against the kiwi, 0.4% versus the Aussie dollar, 0.3% relative to the yen and 0.1% vis-a-vis the yuan and euro. The dollar also has slipped 0.2% against loonie and 0.1% versus the Swiss franc. Sterling is steady.
Ten-year German bund and Japanese JGB yields are unchanged, but the 10-year British gilt yield firmed three basis points.
West Texas Intermediate oil rebounded 1.6% to $45.40 per barrel. Comex gold eased 0.1% to $1,136.20 per ounce.
German producer prices dropped by a greater-than-forecast 0.5% in August, producing the largest 12-month decline (1.7%) since March.
The British Rightmove house price index rose less than expected in September, climbing 0.9% from August but retaining the prior month’s on-year advance of 6.4%.
Turkish consumer confidence weakened to 58.52 in September, lowest since January 2009, from 62.35 in August, 64.66 in July and 66.45 in June.
Swiss M3 money growth slowed to a 12-month rise of just 1.4% in August from 1.9% in July. The Swiss current account surplus widened 17% last quarter to CHF 17.6 billion.
Spain’s trade deficit narrowed 31.7% to EUR 1.40 billion in August, and the Greek current account surplus ballooned to EUR 4.25 billion in July from less than 1 billion euros the month before.
Business sentiment in China relapsed to a reading of 51.3 in September after improving to 56.0 in August from 48.8 in July.
CPI inflation in Hong Kong eased to 2.4% last month from 2.5% in July.
U.S. existing home sales and Canadian wholesale turnover data get released today. Bank of Canada Governor Poloz and Atlanta Fed President Lockhart speak publicly today.
Copyright 2015, Larry Greenberg. All rights reserved. No secondary distribution without express permission.
Tags: German PPI, Japanese holidays
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