SHANGHAI, Apr 11 (SMM) – This is a roundup of global macroeconomic news last night and what is expected today.

Last night

LME base metals, except for zinc, traded lower on Wednesday. Lead saw the biggest loss of close to 1.6%, aluminium dropped 0.7%, nickel and copper fell some 0.4%, tin slipped 0.2%.

SHFE base metals saw similar performance overnight. Lead tumbled close to 1.6%, copper declined 0.4%, aluminium, nickel and tin lost close to 0.3%, while zinc gained 0.3%.

After an emergency summit in Brussels on Wednesday, European Union leaders and the UK government agreed to extend the Brexit deadline to October 31.

The US dollar stood lower against a basket of currencies on Wednesday as minutes of the Federal Reserve’s March meeting revealed that policymakers agreed to keep interest rates untouched.

"A majority of participants expected that the evolution of the economic outlook and risks to the outlook would likely warrant leaving the target range unchanged for the remainder of the year," the minutes said.

The minutes also revealed that Fed officials are leaving room for potential interest rate hikes by the end of the year.

The European Central Bank held interest rates steady. ECB President Mario Draghi warned that recent data confirmed concerns of slower economic growth.

The greenback received a boost from strong US consumer prices for March. The Labor Department said on Wednesday that its consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.4% in March, driven by higher costs of food, gasoline and rent, making for the biggest advance since January 2018. The CPI in March increased 1.9% from a year ago.

The CPI core rate, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, edged up 0.1%, matching the gain in February but falling short of the forecast of a gain of 0.2%. On a yearly basis, the core CPI increased 2%, the smallest increase since February 2018.

US crude stockpiles last week rose to their highest since November 2017 as imports increased, while gasoline inventories posted the steepest drawdown since September 2017, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday.

Crude inventories increased by 7 million barrels in the week ended April 5, compared with analyst expectations for an increase of 2.4 million barrels. Gasoline stocks, however, fell 7.7 million barrels, compared expectations for a decline of 2.1 million barrels.

Day ahead

China will release its CPI, producer price index (PPI), total social financing (TSF) and M2 money supply for March while the US will release its PPI for March and weekly unemployment claims.

Germany will reveal its CPI for March.