Wall Street is rising again, partly because some large retailers like Macy’s, Dollar General and Dollar Tree all reported good results reflecting their ability to handle margin pressures from inflation's surge.
Meanwhile, initial jobless claims fell again last week in the US, but the number of people on these benefits rose marginally, but they are still below 1.3 mln and still hovering near 50 year lows.
Pending home sales also fell in April, and both by more than expected and by more than in March. This is an embedded trend now, taking the string of falls to six consecutive months. Higher mortgage servicing costs are hampering sales.
That average prices are still rising just means those that are selling are at the higher-priced end of the market. More recently we should note that US mortgage interest rates dropped last week, for a second straight week.
Although it did fall slightly, the Kansas City Fed manufacturing survey stayed historically strong in May.
Also falling slightly was the second estimate of Q1 economic activity in the giant American economy.
As we have reported with the first estimate, it shrank slightly from the very strong Q4-2021, but is up +3.5% from the same quarter a year ago on an inflation-adjusted basis. On a nominal basis it is up +10.6% year-on-year, boosted of course by heady inflation.
There was yet another very well supported US Treasury bond auction overnight, for their 7 year Note, and again, bidders drove the median yield lower than at the prior equivalent event a month ago. It slipped from 2.84% to 2.71% at this latest event.
The news out of China is still mostly negative and compounding that more property developers have said it can't make loan repayments in full.
In Australia, investment in new private capital fell unexpectedly in Q1-2022, when a solid +1.5% rise was anticipated. This was because investment in buildings and structures fell -1.7% while investment in plant and machinery rose by +1.2%.
Staying in Australia, power prices are regulated. Now just days after the election their regulator has announced new higher "default" power prices, up by between +1.7% and +8.2% above inflation in NSW, south-east Queensland and South Australia from July 1. Soaring coal and gas prices are inflating wholesale prices, mostly war-driven.
The cost of containerised shipping freight barely budged last week. The cost of shipping bulk cargoes fell from its recent highs. The number of ships waiting to be unloaded at the key Southern California ports shrank again and are now at their lowest levels since the pandemic.
Freight clearances off theses ports are again much faster. But we are about to head into the stressful part of the year and officials aren't entirely sure these logistics pressures are behind them even if the recent trends are much better.
The UST 10yr yield will start today at 2.76% and little-changed. The UST 2-10 rate curve has steepened slightly to +27 bps and their 1-5 curve is little-changed at +75 bps. Their 30 day-10yr curve is unchanged at +220 bps. The Australian ten year bond is now at 3.21% and down -2 bps. The China Govt ten year bond is -4 bps softer at just under 2.76%. And the New Zealand Govt ten year is down -6 bps at 3.49%.
Wall Street is rising today with the S&P500 up a strong +2.2% in late Thursday trade and so far this week it has risen more than +3.5%. The NASDAQ has recovered too.
Overnight, European markets were all up about +1.7% except London which gained a lesser +0.6%. Yesterday, Tokyo ended down -0.3%, Hong Kong was also down -0.3%. Shanghai closed up +0.5% with another late-session rise. The ASX200 ended its Thursday session down -0.7%, while the NZX50 fell -0.6% on the day.
The price of gold is lower today, down -US$2 since this time yesterday at US$1849/oz.
And oil prices are up +US$4 from this time yesterday and now just on US$113.50/bbl in the US, while the international Brent price is now just at US$114.50/bbl.
The Kiwi dollar will open today little-changed against the US dollar, now at 64.7 USc. Against the Australian dollar we are softer at 91.2 AUc. Against the euro we are also softer at 60.4 euro cents. That all means our TWI-5 starts today at unchanged 71.5.
The bitcoin price has slipped a minor -0.6% from this time yesterday and is now at US$29,615. Volatility over the past 24 hours has been high however at +/- 3.5%.
Source: Interest .co .nz
No comments:
Post a Comment