Weaker Dollar and Stronger Stocks
September 19, 2016
Over the weekend, 29 people were injured from an exploded bomb in the Chelsea section of New York City over the weekend. Another unexploded bomb was found at a train station in Elizabeth, N.J..
As in Mecklenburg-Pomerania earlier this month, fringe parties were the big winners weekend elections in Berlin. The anti-immigration Alternative for Germany took 14% of Berlin’s vote.
Monetary policy announcements in Japan and the United States are scheduled for Wednesday.
With Japan closed for Respect for the Aged Day, the yen has advanced 1.4% against the dollar and 1.3% versus the yen.
The dollar also fell 0.8% against the Australian dollar, 0.6% relative to the kiwi, 0.4% versus the loonie, 0.3% vis-a-vis sterling and 0.1% against the euro but is unchanged against the yuan and Swiss franc.
In contrast to last week’s difficulties, share prices advanced 2.8% in Taiwan, 1.2% in Hong Kong, 0.9% in Singapore, 1.0% in Indonesia and South Korea, 0.8% in China and 0.5% in New Zealand. Equities in Europe have climbed 1.4% in Italy and France, 1.3% in the U.K., 1.1% in Spain, 0.8% in Switzerland, and 0.7% in Germany.
Sovereign debt yields are unchanged in Germany and Great Britain.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil recovered 1.6% but remains below $44 at $43.72 per barrel. Comex gold rose 0.5%% to $1,316.80 per ounce. Industrial metal prices are softer.
Construction output in Euroland leaped 1.8% in July after firming 0.1% in May and 0.3% in June. The 12-month rate of increase accelerated to 3.1%, most since February.
Euroland recorded a reduced EUR 21.0 billion seasonally adjusted current account surplus in July, down from EUR 29.5 billion in June, EUR 31.7 billion in May and EUR 36.8 billion in August. It was the smallest surplus thus far in 2016, but the year-to-July surplus still equaled a robust 3.0% of GDP/.
Britain’s Rightmove house price index rose in September for the first time since June. It climbed 0.7% on month after a 1.2% drop the month before, and the on-year increase of 4.0% was less than that of 4.1% in August.
Property price inflation in China accelerated from 7.9% in July to 9.2% in August. 13 more big cities reported a 12-month increase in their property prices than had done so in August.
Consumer confidence in Australia improved 1.9% in the third quarter according to the Westpac measure.
New Zealand’s services purchasing managers index rose 3.5 points to an 8-month high of 57.9 in August.
Seasonally adjusted unemployment in Turkey rose to 10.9% in June from 10.3% in May. The unadjusted 10.2% jobless rate was 0.6 percentage points greater than a year earlier.
Hong Kong’s jobless rate, in contrast, stayed low and steady at 3.4% in August.
The U.S. National Association of Home Builders housing index will be released today.
Copyright 2016, Larry Greenberg. All rights reserved. No secondary distribution without express permission.