SHANGHAI, Aug 23 (SMM) – This is a roundup of global macroeconomic news last night and what is expected today.
Last night
The US dollar index closed at 95.075 on Wednesday after it fell to 94.93, the lowest since August 2 as officials at the Federal Reserve said that it will "likely soon be appropriate to take another step in removing policy accommodation”.
The Fed meeting minutes for August also showed that central bank officials are concerned that the ongoing trade war will pose the biggest threat to an otherwise "strong" economy.
LME base metals, except for copper, rose across the board on Wednesday. Zinc surged 1.3%, tin gained 0.95%, nickel inched up 0.15%, aluminium and lead nudged up 0.02%.
SHFE base metals closed mixed overnight. Zinc soared 1.7%, lead climbed 0.88%, tin edged up 0.21% while aluminium edged down 0.07%, copper dipped 0.14% and nickel lost 0.5%.
US home sales fell for a fourth straight month in July as a shortage of properties in the market pushed up house prices. This is likely to have sidelined some potential buyers.
The National Association of Realtors said on Wednesday that existing home sales fell 0.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.34 million units last month.
Rising costs of construction material as well as shortages of land and labour have left builders unable to bridge the inventory gap, pushing up house prices. Supply constraints have largely accounted for the sluggish housing market, but there are growing concerns that higher home prices and rising mortgage rates will slow demand.
US crude inventories fell 5.84 million barrels in the week ended August 17, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday, exceeding the 2 million-barrel draw forecast. Stocks at Cushing, Oklahoma rose by 772,000 barrels last week.
Stockpiles of gasoline grew 1.2 million barrels, while distillate inventories increased 1.85 million barrels, EIA data showed.
Day ahead
The key developments to monitor today are the August Markit manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) data for the eurozone, Germany and the US, US weekly initial claims, July new home sales and June Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) home prices as well as preliminary eurozone consumer confidence figures for August.
The European Central Bank will release minutes for its monetary policy meeting today.
