Generally Quiet Financial Markets This Morning
June 7, 2021
Compared to Friday closing levels, the U.S. dollar is unchanged against the yuan and euro, 0.1% softer versus the yen, loonie, Swissie and sterling, and down 0.2% relative to the Australian and New Zealand dollars.
Stock markets in Asia closed down 0.5% in Hong Kong and 0.4% in Taiwan but up by 0.8% in Singapore, 0.4% in South Korea and India, 0.3% in Japan and 0.2% in China. The British FTSE and Paris CAC are 0.3% higher. The German Dax has edged up 0.1%, and the S&P futures is flat.
New Zealand markets are closed for the Queen’s Birthday holiday.
Ten-year sovereign debt yields are up two basis points each. Among commodity prices, oil and gold show dips of 0.3% and 0.2%.
Group of Seven finance ministers and central bank governors met in London and released a wide-ranging communique Saturday that among other things asserted that “the Covid-19 pandemic can only be overcome when it is brought under control everywhere,” called for a transformative tackling of climate change and biodiversity loss, and commits “to a global minimum tax of at least 15% on a country by country basis.”
In the last German regional election before national elections in the autumn, the center-right CDU scored a much-needed clear victory in Saxony-Anhalt on Saturday.
China’s trade surplus widened but by less than forecast to a 4-month high of $45.5 billion in May. A 51.1% on-year surge of imports was the most in over a decade. The January-May surplus of $203 billion was 70% larger than a year earlier. Chinese forex reserves meanwhile climbed $20 billion last month.
German industrial orders under-performed analyst expectations in April, dipping 0.2% on month. Domestic demand dropped 4.3%, but overall orders were still 78.9% greater than in the pandemic-stricken month of April 2020.
Spanish industrial production was 48% greater in April than a year earlier, and consumer confidence in that economy, up more than 10 index points to a 22-month high, got a huge boost in May from easier Covid restrictions.
The Sentix gauge of investor sentiment toward the euro area economy climbed 7.1 points to 40-month high in June.
Japan’s index of leading economic indicators rose 0.6 index points to an 85-month high in April. The index of coincident economic indicators printed at a 47-month high and elicited a trend designation of “improving” for a second straight month. Japanese international reserves rose $9 billion last month.
Great Britain’s Halifax house price index went up 1.3% on month in May. The 12-month rate of increase of 9.5% compares to those of 8.2% in April and 5.2% in February.
Czech industrial production advanced 1.9% on month and 55.9% on year in April, but construction output (down 3.9% on year) is in a negative streak of 13 straight months.
Norwegian industrial production dipped 0.1% in August and increased just 0.9% compared to April 2020.
Swiss CPI inflation doubled to a 23-month high of 0.6% in May, but the Swiss jobless rate of 3.1% was at a 14-month low.
Austrian wholesale price inflation accelerated 1.2 percentage points to 10.9% in May.
Australia’s AIG-compiled service-sector purchasing managers index printed at a 211-month high of 61.2 in May.
The National Bank of Kazakhstan‘s policy interest rate was left unchanged at 9.0%. That’s been the level since reductions of 250 basis points in April 2020 and 50 bps three months later.
Copyright 2021, Larry Greenberg. All rights reserved. No secondary distribution without express permssion.
Tags: China trade balance, G7 statement, German industrial orders, National Bank of Kazakhstan
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