Scant Change in Dollar
The dollar is unchanged from Thursday closing levels against the yuan, loonie and sterling. The U.S. currency lost 0.1% relative to the yen, euro and Swissie and shows larger 0.4% declines versus the Australian and New Zealand dollars.
Asian share prices rebounded 3.4% in China, 1.2% in Hong Kong, 0.8% in Australia and South Korea and 0.5% in Singapore. Japanese markets were on holiday, observing the Vernal Equinox. In Europe, stocks are up 0.7% in Switzerland, 0.6% in Germany, 0.5% in France and Spain, 0.4% in Britain and 0.2% in Italy.
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The 10-year sovereign debt yields in Germany and Britain are unchanged. U.S. stock futures are higher.
Gold and WTI oil have firmed 0.5% to $1,337.70 per ounce and 0.2% to $99.05 per barrel.
Results released by the Federal Reserve of stress tests on 30 banks found just one with deficient capital. The Fitch credit rating service affirmed the AAA U.S. rating and shifted the outlook back to “stable.”
The Central Bank of Sri Lanka left its repo and reverse repo rates unchanged as expected at 6.5% and 8.0%. The central banks in Mexico and Colombia are scheduled to make interest rate announcements later today.
British public sector net borrowing, excluding intervention, of GBP 9.3 billion was 7.8% greater than in February 2013 and surpassed analyst forecasts by around 6%.
Euroland’s seasonally adjusted current account surplus widened 26.5% on month to EUR 25.3 billion in January. The unadjusted surplus of EUR 223.5 billion in the twelve months through January was 73.7% wider than a year earlier. However, the broad “basic balance,” which sums the current account, net portfolio investment, and net direct investment, amounted to a surplus of EUR 262.7 billion during the latest reported 12 months, just 3.8% wider than in the prior 12 months.
Italian industrial orders grew 2.6% on year in January after a 12-month 1.9% rate of rise in December. Swiss M3 money growth accelerated from 8.6% in January to a 12-month 8.8% rise in February. Icelandic wage inflation slowed two percentage points to 4.7% in February. Danish consumer confidence printed higher at 5.0 in March after a 4.2 reading in February.
Germany’s index of leading economic indicators went up 0.6% in January, twice as much as in December, and the index of coincident economic indicators, up 0.4%, also performed better.
Consumer confidence in New Zealand fell 0.8% in March on top of a 2.1% slide in February. Australia’s index of leading economic indicators rose just 0.2% in January according to the Conference Board measure, and so did the index of coincident economic indicators.
Hong Kong’s current account surplus narrowed 40.4% to HKD 18.95 billion last quarter. The Filipino current account surplus, in contrast, widened between 3Q and 4Q by 15.6% to $3.7 billion. Malaysian CPI inflation unexpectedly ticked up 0.1 of a percentage point to 3.5% last month. The Bank of Thailand revised projected GDP growth in 2014 down 0.3 percentage points to 2.7%, marking the fourth downward revision in five months.
Canada releases both retail sales and CPI data today, and the preliminary estimate of euro area consumer sentiment also arrives. But no U.S. data are scheduled.
Copyright 2014, Larry Greenberg. All rights reserved. No secondary distribution without express permission.
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