Many Markets Remain Closed for Easter Monday and Only a Few Data Released
April 5, 2021
Australia, New Zealand, Canada and most European markets are shut observing the extended Easter holiday, while China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are celebrated the Ching Ming Festival. The World Bank/IMF meetings at which Fed Chairman Powell will be speaking are running all week.
The dollar has dipped 0.3% relative to the Australian dollar and sterling, 0.2% versus the Canadian dollar and Mexican peso, and 0.1% against the yen and its weighted DXY index. Bigger losses have occurred of 0.4% against the Turkish lira and 0.6% versus the kiwi.
Asian stock markets were mixed this Monday, with advances of 0.9% in Singapore, 0.8% in the Philippines and Japan and 0.3% in South Korea but drops of 1.7% in India, 1.2% in Thailand and Vietnam and 0.7% in Indonesia. U.S. futures show gains of 0.5-0.7% in lagged response to Friday’s out-sized reported jump in U.S. jobs last months, but the ten-year Treasury yield remains steady.
The price of West Texas Intermediate oil settled back 1.6%, while gold is little changed.
Final estimates of Japan’s March composite and service sector purchasing manager indices were revised above preliminary indications to 14-month highs of 49.9 and 48.3.
Russian composite and service-sector PMI readings rose to 7-month highs of 54.6 and 55.8.
India’s manufacturing PMI, in contrast, fell 2.1 points in March to a 7-month low of 55.4 amid continuing elevated inflationary pressure.
And the Filipino manufacturing PMI, which in February had matched January’s 25-month high, settled back 0.3 points to a 3-month low last month of 52.2.
Non-oil Middle Eastern purchasing manager indices fell to a 9-month low of 48.0 in Egypt and a 5-month low of 53.3 in Saudi Arabia but advanced two full points to a 20-month high of 52.6 in the United Arab Emirates.
Turkish inflation again accelerated last month. The CPI pace climbed to a 20-month high of 16.19%, while PPI inflation jumped 3 percentage points to a 26-month high of 31.2%.
In Cyprus, by contrast, CPI inflation stayed below zero percent for a 12th straight month but rose 1.2 percentage points to a four-month high of -0.7% from February’s on-year drop of 1.9%.
In Thailand, consumer prices were a marginal 0.08% below their year-earlier level in March. That was their least negative reading in a streak of 12 months of deflation.
Romanian retail sales in February were fewer than a year earlier (-1.2%) for a second straight months. Singapore retail sales growth swung to a 12-month increase (+5.2%) for the first time in 25 months.
The U.S. service-sector purchasing managers survey will be reported later this morning.
Copyright 2021, Larry Greenberg. All rights reserved. No secondary distribution without express permission.
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