Market Overview
• Worldwide coronavirus cases surpass 133.002 million with over 2.885 million official
Deaths
• Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced a New Zealand- Australia travel free bubble starting from the 19th of this month
• Australia Housing Auction market is running hot with 80% of auctioned properties selling, this has only happened 5 times since 2008
• NZ Credit Card spending for March rose 2.0% over February’s -3.2% and equates for a total of 68% of NZ Retail Sales highlighted a good come back
• The Federal Reserve confirmed a rate hike is at least two years away and happy with inflation going above 2.0% for a while
• Italy will rollout a 40B EUR stimulus package with the vaccination rate in Europe set to speed up over the following few months
Major Announcements last week:
- RBA keep rates unchanged at 0.10%
- An increase of 744,000 filed for unemployment in the US last week compared to 682,000 expected
- Canadian Unempoyment Rate shrank to 7.5% from February’s 8.2%