Macro Roundup (Jun 13)

Published: Jun 13, 2018 08:57 (GMT+8)
Macro Roundup

SHANGHAI, Jun 13 (SMM) – This is a roundup of global macroeconomic news last night and what is expected today.

Last night

The US dollar index closed at 93.8 overnight, up 0.26%. The index rose over 0.3% at one point after the “truly historic” US-North Korea Summit.

Base metals fell across the board overnight.

China’s total social financing growth declined to 760.8 billion yuan ($118.8 billion) in May, the slowest monthly growth in 22 months. The increase in May is less than half of gains in April. 

Analysts attributed the sharp drop in the broad measure of credit and liquidity in the economy to the continuous control of non-standard credit business and the slowdown in infrastructure investments.

Chinese banks extended 1.15 trillion yuan (about $179.7 billion) in new yuan-denominated loans in May, down from 1.18 trillion yuan in April.

M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, grew 8.3% year on year, unchanged from a month earlier.

The German ZEW economic sentiment index for June worsened to -16.1, the lowest since September 2012, compared to the expected -14 and the previous -8.2. The index for eurozone also dropped sharply to -12.6 in June, the lowest since July 2016, from 2.4 in May.

ZEW president professor Achim Wambach noted: “The recent escalation in the trade dispute with the US as well as fears over the new Italian government pursuing a policy which potentially destabilises the financial markets have left their mark on the economic outlook for Germany. On top of this, German industry has been reporting worse than expected figures for exports, production and incoming orders for April. As a result, the economic outlook for the next six months has worsened considerably.”

US consumer prices rose marginally in May as prices of gasoline slowed their gains.

The consumer price index (CPI) increased 0.2% last month, in line with expectations and the gain in April. On a yearly basis, the CPI increased 2.8% last month, the biggest advance since February 2012, after rising 2.5% in April.

Excluding the volatile food and energy components, the so-called core CPI rose 0.2% month on month in May, matching the expectations, supported by a rebound in new motor vehicle prices and a pickup in the cost of health care. The index edged up 0.1% in April. On a yearly basis, the so-called core CPI jumped 2.2% in May, the largest rise since February 2017, from 2.1% in April.

Day ahead

Key factors to watch today include the US producer price index (PPI) in May and oil inventory data over the week ended June 8 from the American Petroleum Institute (API) and from the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

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