Macro Roundup (Sep 11)

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

Last night

The US dollar stayed in its recent tight range, before the European Central Bank on Thursday is expected to cut interest rates deeper into negative territory and possibly restart asset purchases.

The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies, gained 0.04% to end at 98.37.

LME base metals closed mixed while SHFE settled mostly higher on Tuesday. LME zinc climbed 1.6%, aluminium gained 1.2%, tin rose 0.8%, while copper eased 0.1%, lead fell 0.3%, and nickel slid 0.8%. 

SHFE zinc advanced 0.8%, nickel increased 0.4%, tin rose 0.2%, aluminium grew 0.1%, lead nudged up, while copper shed 0.2%. 

China’s factory gate prices contracted for the second month in August and at a sharper rate, reinforcing the urgency for Beijing to step up stimulus to support the manufacturing sector and the broader economy.

The producer price index (PPI), a key barometer of corporate profitability, dropped 0.8% from a year earlier in August, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said. It was the worst year-on-year contraction since August 2016, when it fell 0.8%.

NBS data also showed that China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 2.8% year on year in August, unchanged from that in July. 

Food prices grew 10% year on year last month, up from a 9.1% rise in July, while non-food prices gained 1.1%, 0.2 percentage point lower than that of July.

US job openings declined in July to a five-month low, signalling a pause in demand for workers ahead of a cooling in August payrolls growth that indicates the labour market may be gradually losing momentum.

The number of positions waiting to be filled fell by 31,000 to 7.22 million, according to the Labour Department’s Job Openings and Labour Turnover Survey (JOLTS) released Tuesday. The quits rate rose to 2.4%, the highest since April 2001, suggesting workers remain confident about their ability to find a job.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported late Tuesday that US crude supplies fell by 7.2 million barrels for the week ended September 6. 

The API data also reportedly showed a stockpile decline of 4.5 million barrels in gasoline, while distillate supplies rose by 618,000 barrels. 

Day ahead

China will publish data on its social financing and M2 money supply for August, and the US will release data on its August’s PPI, July’s wholesale inventories, and the weekly change in its crude stockpiles by the Energy Information Administration (EIA).