Lack of Market Leadership With Many Market Centers Remaining on Holiday
April 10, 2023
Just about all of Europe remains closed for Easter Monday. So do key current and former elements of the British Commonwealth such as Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and India. South Africans are celebrating Family Day.
The dollar has traded narrowly in the absence of market leadership, rising 0.3% against the kiwi, 0.2% relative to the Turkish lira, and 0.1% versus the Japanese yen, Swiss franc and Chinese yuan, falling 0.2% against the Mexican peso and Swiss franc, edging 0.1% lower relative to sterling,remaining unchanged on balance against the euro and Australian dollar.
In U.S. stock futures trading the S&P and DOW are up 0.1%, while the Nasdaq is down a similar minuscule amount. equities in Asia closed up 0.9% in South Korea, 0.4% in Japan, and 0.3% in Taiwan but down 0.4% in China.
The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield is one basis point lower, and the 10-year Japanese JGB has risen one basis point. Prices for Bitcoin, oil and gold respectively have dipped 0.1%, risen 0.2%, and fallen 0.5%.
Japan’s current account surplus of JPY 2.197 trillion in February was similar to its year-earlier surplus of JPY 2.249 trillion, But when adjusted for seasonal variation, the surplus of JPY 1.084 trillion was 5.4 times larger than the surplus in January. Consumer confidence last month in Japan printed at a 10-month high and above the 50 level for a second straight time. Japan’s economy watchers index, a measure of sentiment among service sector workers, jumped to a 15-month high of 53.3 in March from 52.0 in February and 43.4 last July. Survey respondents were similarly their most optimistic in 16 months about Japan’s business outlook.
Egyptian consumer price inflation rose to a 68-month high of 32.7% in March, some three times higher than the 10.5% pace in March 2022.
Once thought likely to plunge more than 10%, Russian GDP contracted only 2.1% in 2022 and was still about 0.5% above the pre-pandemic 2019 average level.
Greek industrial production leaped 4.8% on month in February and also posted a 7-month year-on-year growth high of 5.2%.
Turkey’s current account deficit narrowed 14% in Februaryto $8.78 billion from January’s record high.
The IMF/World Bank spring meetings in Washington D.C. will run all week. This week’s data release calendar features U.S. and Chinese CPI and PPI figures, U.S., Euroland, and British industrial production, and minutes of the last monetary policy meetings at the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank. Each resulted in an interest rate hike, and additional increases appear likely at their next respected policy reviews in May.
Copyright 2023, Larry Greenberg. All rights reserved. No secondary distribution without express permission.