Key Points:
• The Chinese economy is struggling to recover from the second quarter slowdown with Industrial Production and Retail Sales the main causes amid zero tolerance covid lockdowns
• South Korea has said North Korea nuclear testing is not imminent as they continue to prepare missiles for launch
• The ECB meet next week and should hike rates 75 points, this predates expectations of another hike of 50 points in October and 25 in December
• Goldman Sachs are predicting a United Kingdom recession in the 4th quarter of 2022
• The US Dollar (USD) has been the strongest currency in the month of August while the British Pound (GBP) and the Japanese Yen (JPY) share the spot of the weakest on the main board of currencies
• The Euro (EUR) has fallen below parity against the US Dollar (USD) in recent days and posted a fresh daily low of 0.9914 Monday, the first time this has happened since December 2002
Major Announcements last week:
US Flash Services PMI 44.1 vs 49.8 expected
US Home Sales falls to 511k vs 574k
NZ Retail Sales q/q down 2.3% from expectations of 1.7%
US University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment 58.2 vs 55.3