Slow Day So Far
March 11, 2014
The U.S. dollar gained 0.2% overnight against the euro, Swissie and sterling and 0.1% versus the yen and loonie. The greenback is unchanged relative to the Australian dollar and yuan and down 0.1% against the kiwi.
Share prices in the Pacific Rim rose 1.1% in Thailand, 0.7% in Japan, 0.6% in Indonesia, 0.5% in China and South Korea, and 0.4% in Taiwan. Stocks were unchanged in Australia and Hong Kong but closed off 0.5% in India. In Europe, the German Dax rose 0.3%, but the Paris Cac, British Ftse and Spanish IBEX are off by 0.4%, 0.2%, and 0.2%.
There’s been no net net change in 10-year German bund and Japanese JGB yields. The 10-year British gilt is two basis points softer.
WTI crude oil is unchanged at $101.11 per barrel. Gold is up 0.5% at $1,348.40 per ounce.
As expected, the Bank of Japan left its policy directive unchanged. Since April 2013, quantitative easing has been growing the monetary base at a rate of JPY 60-70 trillion per annum and keeping the overnight uncollateralized interest rate hovering around 0.07-0.08%. Officials upgraded industrial production, downgraded their view of exports, and left the overall economic assessment unchanged.
Japanese M2 money growth slowed to 4.0% on year in February, a five-month low and down from 4.2% in 4Q13. Japanese machine tool orders in February were 26.0% higher than a year before, down from a 40% on-year advance in January.
British industrial production ticked up 0.1% on month and 2.9% on year in January. Reflecting floods, same-store sales were 1.0% lower in February than a year before according to the British Retail Consortium.
The German current account surplus in January was EUR 16.2 billion compared to EUR 10.6 billion a year earlier. The unadjusted trade surplus of EUR 15.0 billion was 10.3% wider than in January 2013, as export growth of 2.9% doubled the 1.5% increase in imports. The seasonally adjusted January trade surplus of EUR 17.2 billion was a bit smaller than the 4Q average monthly surplus of EUR 17.7 billion but greater than the 2013 mean of EUR 16.6 billion.
Italian fourth-quarter GDP growth was confirmed at +0.1%, but the on-year pace was revised to a drop of 0.9%. GDP had been unchanged in 3Q and 1.8% lower than in 3Q12.
Small business sentiment in the United States according to the NIFB index slumped unexpectedly by 2.7 points to an 11-month low of 91.4 in February.
Australian business confidence and business conditions fell back five and two points to readings of seven and zero according to the National Australia Bank.
New Zealand house prices were 7.6% weaker than a year earlier in February.
Hungarian consumer prices rose just 0.1% in the year to February, while Sweden’s CPI rate in the same statement year was negative 0.4%. Romanian inflation held steady at +1.1%. Romanian industrial production jumped 2.3% in January and posted a 9.8% 12-month rate of increase.
Swiss industrial output rose just 0.4% between 4Q12 and 4Q13. Denmark recorded a DKK 9.0 billion current account in January, 12% narrower than in December.
India’s trade deficit plunged 42.4% on month to $8.13 billion in February.
Other scheduled U.S. data to be released today include weekly chain store sales, the monthly JOLTS index of hiring and firing activity, and monthly wholesale inventories.
Copyright 2014, Larry Greenberg. All rights reserved. No secondary distribution without express permission.
Tags: BOJ, British industrial output, German current account