Macro Roundup (Mar 10)

SHANGHAI, Mar 10 (SMM) – This is a roundup of global macroeconomic news last night and what is expected in the day ahead.

Last night

The US dollar dived against the euro and yen on Monday on the back of a slump in oil prices and lingered coronavirus fears.
The markets have begun considering pricing in an additional 0.75% basis points cut by the US Federal Reserve in March, which should slash the benchmark interest rate to the range of 0.25%-0.50%
Oil prices collapsed 30% after Saudi Arabia stunned markets with a pledge to slash prices and boost production following the collapse of an OPEC supply agreement.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies, slipped to the lowest level since September 2018 at 94.63.
LME base metals extended their declines for the most part, with copper leading the losses with a drop of 1.89%. Zinc fell 0.53%, nickel lost 1.83%, lead shed 1.85%, while aluminum gained 0.21% and tin added 0.21%. 
Official data released on Monday showed German industrial output surged by 3% in January, surpassing expectations of a rise of 1.7%.
“The 3% increase provides an important buffer: a kind of stockpile for the difficult times ahead,” said Thomas Gitzel, economist at VP Bank Group.
After Italy and France, Germany has the largest number of coronavirus cases in Europe, and concern is growing about the economic and public health consequences of what threatens to become a global pandemic.
German exports declined by 2.1% to 106.5 billion euros in January, compared to the same month last year, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced on Monday.
Imports in January decreased by 1.8% year-on-year to 92.7 billion euros, according to Destatis.
In January, German exports to the European Union (EU) countries decreased by 2.2% while imports went down by 2.5%. Goods exported to Britain from Germany declined by 16.3% while British imports shot up by 14.5% in the last month before Britain left the EU on January 31.
Germany's foreign trade balance recorded a surplus of 13.9 billion euros in January 2020 but was still below the 2019 level of 14.5 billion euros, Destatis noted.
Eurozone Sentix investor confidence index dropped sharply to -17 in March, down from 5.2 in the previous month and missed expectation of -11. That’s the lowest level since April 2013. 
Current Situation index dropped from 4 to -14.3, lowest since October 2019. Expectations index plunged from 6.5 to -20, lowest since August 2012. 

Day ahead

Key economic data slated for release today include China’s consumer price index (CPI), social financing and M2 money supply for February, as well as eurozone’s seasonally-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) for the fourth quarter