Market Overview
Key Points:
• Markets kick off the week in a bad mood with equity markets all down as the realisation of a slow path of economic recovery looms
• The Jackson Hole symposium in Wyoming starts midweek
• Canadian Retail Sales up 1.1% in June vs 0.4% forecast
• The US Dollar (USD) is the strongest currency this month while the British Pound (GBP) and the Japanese Yen (JPY) are the weakest on the main board of currencies
• The PBOC has cut their interest rate in efforts to boost economic activity as the economy struggles to recover from the second quarter slowdown
• Russia will close the Nord Stream pipeline for 3 days which has sent gas prices soaring
• The world bank has warned of 80’s style debt crisis with higher-than-expected interest rates, the ongoing threat to covid lockdowns and supply chain concerns
• The Euro (EUR has fallen below parity against the US Dollar (USD) to 0.9942 this morning the first time this has happened since December 2002
Major Announcements last week:
Chinese CPI y/y 2.7% vs forecast 5.0%
RBNZ official cash rate 3.0% up form 2.5%
UK CPI prints @ 10.1% y/y vs forecast of 9.8%
US Retail Salas 0.0% vs 0.1% expected
Australian unemployment rate falls to 3.4% from 3.5%
UK Retail Sales for July print surprisingly positive at 0.3% vs -0.2% expectations