Several Japanese Indicators Released but Little Currency Movement this Monday
February 10, 2014
The dollar is unchanged against the euro, Swissie and loonie, up 0.4% against the Australian and New Zealand dollars, up 0.1% versus sterling and down 0.1% relative to the yuan and yen. Emerging market currencies slid to start the week, including depreciations of 0.6% in the rand and 1.0% in Hungary’s forint.
Share prices leaped 2.5% in China, 1.8% in Japan, and 1.1% in Australia, but they fell 0.4% in Indonesia, 0.3% in Hong Kong, and 0.2% in India and New Zealand. In Europe, the Spanish Ibex has slumped 1.2%, and equities have fallen 0.6% in Italy and 0.1% in Germany and Britain. stocks are also 0.1% firmer in Paris and Zurich. S&P futures are lower.
The ten-year British gilt and German bund yields are unchanged. The 10-year Japanese JGB is off a basis point.
Gold strengthened 0.7% to $1,271.50 per ounce. Oil slid 0.4% and remains under $100 at $99.49 per barrel.
Japan’s economy watchers index fell a full point to a two-month low of 54.7. The outlook index, however, plunged 5.7 points and moved under the 50 threshold to 49.0.
Japanese consumer confidence dropped 0.8 points to 40.5 in January, lowest since 39.2 in December 2012 and down from 45.4 as recently as September.
A JPY 639 billion current account deficit in December was the largest shortfall ever and 2.77 times bigger than the 231 billion deficit in December 2012. The seasonally adjusted current account deficit of 197 billion yen was 4.2 times wider than the deficit of 47 billion yen in November. December’s unadjusted merchandise trade deficit of JPY 1.213 trillion was 112% larger than in December 2012 as imports grew 25.3% to a 15.6% expansion of exports. The 2013 current account surplus of 3.306 trillion yen was a record low and embodied a 15.4% increase of merchandise imports versus a 4.5% rise in 2012. Exports advanced 9.0% last year after a 4.5% increase in 2012. The 2012 current account had posted a surplus of 4.82 trillion yen.
Stock and bond transactions in Japan generated a 2.032 trillion yen net capital outflow in January.
Japanese bank lending grew 2.3% on year in January, the same rate of rise as in December.
There was a smaller on-year decline of Japanese bankruptcies in January, 7.5%, than December’s 15.7% drop.
French industrial production unexpectedly fell 0.3% in December and posted a disappointing 0.7% rise from a year earlier. Instead of ticking a point higher as analysts were predicting, the Bank of France’s index of French business sentiment printed at 99 in January after 100 in December and 101 in November.
Italian industrial production also missed expectations on the downside. Such fell 0.9% on month and 0.7% versus December 2012. Bad bank loans in Italy were a whopping 24.6% greater in December than a year before.
Greek industrial production in December, up 3.3% from November and 0.5% on year, recorded the first advance since June. Finnish industrial output fell 5.2% on year in December.
Ireland’s construction purchasing managers index fell 1.9 points to a 4-month low of 56.4 in January.
The Sentix gauge of investor sentiment toward the euro area improved more than forecast to a reading of 13.3 in February from 11.9 in January.
Swiss unemployment held steady at 3.2% seasonally adjusted in January.
Norwegian consumer prices and producer prices were respectively 2.3% and 5.3% greater in January than a year before. Danish consumer prices posted a 1.0% on-year advance last month. The Danish current account surplus narrowed 17.3% in December to 9.4 billion kroner.
Taiwan’s trade surplus roughly doubled to $2.97 billion between December and January. Malaysian industrial production accelerated to a 4.8% 12-month rise in December.
Turkish industrial production was flat on month in December but 7.1% greater than a year earlier.
No U.S. data releases are scheduled, but analysts eagerly await tomorrow’s Humphrey-Hawkins testimony from the new Fed Chair, Janet Yellen. Canadian housing starts get reported today.
Copyright 2014, Larry Greenberg. All rights reserved. No secondary distribution without express permission.
Tags: Italian industrial production, Japanese current account, Sentix