Waning Days of 2015
December 30, 2015
There’s not much to report on this penultimate day of the year. In market action around the world,
- Overnight changes in the dollar include gains of 0.2% against the loonie and kiwi, a 0.1% uptick versus sterling and the yuan and a 0.1% dip relative to the Swiss franc. The U.S. currency is unchanged against the euro, yen and Australian dollar.
- Equities rose 1.0% in Australia, 0.8% in New Zealand, 0.5% in Indonesia and 0.3% in Japan and China but fell by 0.9% in Hong Kong, 0.5% in India and 0.3% in South Korea. In Europe, share prices have slipped 0.6% in Germany, 0.4% in Britain, 0.2% in Italy and 0.1% in France.
- West Texas Intermediate crude oil at $36.91 per barrel is down 2.5%, but Comex gold is reasonably stable at $1,066.50 per ounce.
- !0-year sovereign debt yields have risen six basis points in the U.K., two basis points in Germany and a basis point in Japan.
Russia’s manufacturing purchasing managers index dropped 1.4 points in December to a 5-month low of 48.7. Being below 50, the result signals a contraction of the factory sector after back-to-back expansions in October and November.
The Austria manufacturing PMI declined 0.8 points to a 4-month low of 50.6 in December.
Eurozone M3 money posted on-year advances of 5.1% in November (down from 5.3% in October) and also averaged 5.1% in September-November. The slowdown was concentrated in narrow M1 money, whose growth slipped to 11.2% on year from 11.8%. Loans to the private sector picked up to a 1.4% from 1.2% in October and 1.1% in September. Loans to non-financial firms (up 0.9%) accelerated slightly.
Italian producer prices recorded a larger 3.3% on-year decline in October and also fell by 0.5% on month.
The UBS Swiss consumption indicator printed 0.06 points higher in November at 1.66. Such had averaged 1.59 in the third quarter.
The Nationwide index of British house prices for December recorded a month-on-month advance of 0.8%, most in eight months, and accelerated to a 4.5% on-year pace, most since May and up from 3.7% in the year to November.
Spanish harmonized consumer prices fell 0.4% on month and 0.1% on year in the final month of 2015. Inflation ended the year lower than expected. Greek producer prices dropped 8.5% between November 2014 and last month. In the same time span of November to November, Portuguese industrial production rose 1.1%, and Norwegian retail sales climbed just 0.9%.
South Korean industrial output slipped 0.3% while retail sales went up 5.5% during the 12 months to November. Thailand’s current account and trade surpluses in November, respectively at $2.09 billion and $3.00 billion, were smaller than in October.
U.S. monthly pending home sales and weekly mortgage application and oil inventory data will be released today.
Copyright 2015, Larry Greenberg. All rights reserved. No secondary distribution without express permission.
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