News

Data from a survey from market research firm GfK on UK Consumer Confidence for March -9  expected -15 prior -7 GfK comment: “While we have a long way to drop before we match the devastating numbers seen in July 2008 when the Overall Index Score crashed to -39 points, lockdown Britain can only expect further deterioration” 

An ICYMI from Russia, announcement by the city’s Mayor Moscow lockdown from March 30 All residents forbidden from leaving their homes and their movement in the city would subject to special permits exceptions for buying groceries, medicines, walking pets within 100 meters from home and disposing of litter Four days ago President Putin said Russia

Bloomberg reports that Plains All American Pipeline asked its suppliers to scale back production,  and Plains and Enterprise Products Partners is requiring customers to prove they have a buyer or place to offload the crude they are shipping The companies made the requests during the past week.  This is a clear sign that a growing

Financial Times piece citing analysis  Global petrol demand set to drop as much as 50 per cent in some key markets Oil refineries worldwide are preparing to slash processing rates  petrol becomes the next part of the oil market to become distressed “It’s like the entirety of Europe, Africa and the Middle East combined stopped driving,”

The latest numbers from New York state delivered by Governor Cuomo: Total cases today vs 37,258 yesterday New cases today +7377 vs +6447 yesterday Need 40,000 ICU ventilators, have 3000 Navy medical ship should arrive Monday Total deaths 519 vs 385 yesterday (+134 vs +100 yesterday) +290 in intensive care Total in ICU 1583 vs

Forex news for North American trade on March 27, 2020: Markets: Gold down $9 to $1622 WTI crude down $1.01 to $21.60 US 10-year yields down 16 bps to 0.68% S&P 500 down 89 points to 2541 GBP leads, USD lags Wave after wave of US dollar selling was the theme again as last week’s

Reuters reports, citing Treasury sources on the matter Well, the good news is that finance minister Rishi Sunak doesn’t appear to be showing any symptoms of the coronavirus and is continuing to carry out his job function. Sunak holds an important role right now as he needs to facilitate fiscal efforts to help the UK

Updated NZD forecasts via ASB (and sees big drop for GDP) Coming Up! Title text for next article LON SDNY+11 NY -5 TYO +9 GMT The latest set projections from ASB, the banks sees 2020 GDP falling 5.9% in New Zealand  down 15% q/q (annualised) in Q2 COVID-19 has been a game changer to both

Greek and Italian bond yields continue to fall ForexLive The ECB confirmed that they are in the market today and that is keeping European bonds underpinned for the most part, but more importantly it is putting a bid behind periphery bonds – notably Italy and Greece. The blowup in yields from the two countries last

I posted earlier on the idea floated by 9 EU members for the issuance of common EU bonds: All 27 EU leaders will hold a coronavirus videoconference on Thursday at 1500 GMT, the bonds will be one topic of discussion. Common EU debt has been a talking point for past years in various guises, but

Latest data from the Mortgage Bankers Association for the week ending 20 March 2020 Prior -8.4% Purchase index 237.4 vs 278.1 prior Market index 758.4 vs 1,073.6 prior Refinancing index 3,809.3 vs 5,751.0 prior 30-year mortgage rate 3.82% vs 3.74% prior That is the biggest percentage drop in the headline reading since 2009, as we see

New Zealand trade balance for February: NZD 594m (expected 525mNZD) Coming Up! Title text for next article LON SDNY+11 NY -5 TYO +9 GMT NZ data – New Zealand trade balance for February NZD 594m expected 525mNZD, prior -340mNZD exports 4.92bn vs. expected 4.90bNZD, prior 4.73bNZD imports 4.33bn vs. expected 4.30bNZD, prior 5.07bNZD Beats all ’round!

There will be no ‘lock in’ briefings upon the change The changes will affect the following economic data releases:ForexLive As a result, the February CPI data scheduled for 0930 GMT this Wednesday will be changed to be released at 0700 GMT instead. The same will apply for the February retail sales data on Thursday this

HIGH RISK WARNING: Foreign exchange trading carries a high level of risk that may not be suitable for all investors. Leverage creates additional risk and loss exposure. Before you decide to trade foreign exchange, carefully consider your investment objectives, experience level, and risk tolerance. You could lose some or all of your initial investment; do

RKI also insists that Germany have enough test kits at their disposal The institute also says that they are optimistic that social distancing is working. Hmm, it doesn’t pay to be complacent so I hope that they will keep at it for now. Looking at the confirmed cases curve, there is a minor shift in

HIGH RISK WARNING: Foreign exchange trading carries a high level of risk that may not be suitable for all investors. Leverage creates additional risk and loss exposure. Before you decide to trade foreign exchange, carefully consider your investment objectives, experience level, and risk tolerance. You could lose some or all of your initial investment; do

Updating a few COVID-19 developments in Asia.  Singapore will not be allowing short-term visitors to enter or transit through: and will limit the entry of work permit holders to those in essential sectors new bans begin Tuesday Australia’s two most populous states, NSW and Victoria, are to go into lockdown: all non-essential services to be

Reuters cite unnamed government sources for Finance Minister Olaf Scholz says the debt ceiling will be raised. On the stimulus package: will include a supplementary government budget of 156bn euros 100bn  euro economic stability fund (will enable government to take equity holdings in firms) 100bn euros in credit to public-sector development bank KfW (for lending