Macro Roundup (Jun 16)

SHANGHAI, Jun 16 (SMM) – This is a roundup of global macroeconomic news last night and what is expected in the day ahead.

The US dollar declined on Monday amid mounting fears of a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. 

The Federal Reserve announced it would buy individual corporate bonds in the secondary market, and this sparked a risk-on move, sending US stocks higher and safe-haven assets like the US dollar lower.

Against a basket of currencies, the dollar eased but still held close to a more than one-week high hit in the previous session.

LME and SHFE base metals ended mixed overnight. LME copper shed 0.7%, tin slipped 1.12%, lead declined 0.54%, while aluminium gained 0.73%, zinc added 0.63% and nickel climbed 0.71%. 

SHFE copper fell 0.28%, tin dipped 0.34%, while aluminium rose 0.62%, zinc increased 0.34%, nickel went up 1.34% and lead went flat. Rebar shed 0.44% and stainless steel dropped 0.51%.

On the data front, China's retail sales of consumer goods declined 2.8% year on year in May, narrowing from a drop of 7.5% in April, the National Bureau of Statistics said Monday.

In May, retail sales of consumer goods reached 3.2 trillion yuan, up 0.79% month on month. In the first five months of the year, China's retail sales of consumer goods went down 13.5% year on year to reach 13.9 trillion yuan, narrowing by 2.7 percentage points from the first four months.

Retail sales in rural areas fell 3.2% year on year in May, while sales in urban areas decreased 2.8%.

China's value-added industrial output grew 4.4% year on year in May, but investment stayed negative as the slow economic recovery continues amid coronavirus control, official data showed on Monday. 

Industrial output, a gauge of manufacturing, mining and utilities sector activity, was up from 3.9% growth in April. Within it, manufacturing grew by 5.2%, mining was up 1.1% and utilities by 3.6%, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Fixed asset investment, the year-to-date value of spending on real estate, infrastructure and capital equipment, dipped 6.3% between January and May from the same period last year, worse than an expected fall of 5.9%.

Key economic data slated for release today include the German consumer price index (CPI) for May, the US retail sales and industrial output for May and the eurozone ZEW indicator of economic sentiment for June.

Fed Chair Powell is scheduled to tee off his testimony to congress on Tuesday, June 16