Macro Roundup (Sep 27)

SHANGHAI, Sep 27 (SMM) — This is a roundup of global macroeconomic news last night and what is expected today.

The dollar wallowed near its lowest level in a week versus major peers on Friday, as improved risk sentiment wiped out recent gains amid easing concerns about contagion from a potential China Evergrande Group default.

Risk appetite returned, lifting oil and global equities, even as hawkish comments from the Bank of England pushed up yields globally, with those on 10-year US Treasury notes hitting the highest since July overnight at 1.437%.

That failed to help the greenback though, with the US Dollar Index, which measures the currency against a basket of six rivals, easing slightly to 93.068 from Thursday, when it slid 0.36% and touched the lowest since Sept. 17 at 92.977. That erased gains for the week, and set the index up for a 0.16% decline.

Beijing injected fresh cash into its financial system on Thursday, as embattled property giant Evergrande announced it would make interest payments on an onshore bond. There has been no word yet, however, on whether it also made coupon payments on dollar bonds due that day, with more due next week.

US stock futures climbed in overnight trading on Sunday as investors braced for the last week of a volatile September.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 80 points. S&P 500 futures rose 0.2% and Nasdaq 100 futures were little changed.

Wall Street is coming off a roller-coaster week amid a slew of concerns from the debt crisis of China’s real estate giant Evergrande to the Federal Reserve’s signal on rollback in monetary stimulus, and to Beijing’s crackdown on cryptocurrencies. Still, major averages managed to wipe out steep losses earlier in the week and eke out small gains.

The blue-chip Dow finished the week 0.6% higher, breaking a three-week losing streak. The S&P 500 rose 0.5% on the week, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite edged up 0.02% last week.

Oil prices steadied on Friday near a two-month high of $77.50 a barrel and were headed for a third straight week of gains, supported bOil prices rose for a third week in a row to a near three-year high on Friday as global output disruptions have forced energy companies to pull large amounts of crude out of inventories.

The rally was slightly dampened by China’s first public sale of state crude reserves.

Brent futures rose 84 cents, or 1.1%, to settle at $78.09 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 68 cents, or 0.9%, to settle at $73.98.

That was the highest close for Brent since October 2018 and for WTI since July 2021, both for a second day in a row.

It was the third week of gains for Brent and the fifth for WTI mostly due to US Gulf Coast output disruptions from Hurricane Ida in late August.

Gold prices edged higher on Friday after falling more than 1% in the previous session, helped by a subdued dollar, although Federal Reserve’s plans on reducing stimulus to the US economy kept the bullion on track for a third straight week of declines.

Spot gold rose 0.2% to $1,746.84 per ounce by 0102 GMT, after hitting its lowest since Aug. 11 at $1737.46 on Thursday. Prices were down 0.4% for the week.

US gold futures eased 0.1% to $1,747.80.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 ended down 0.9% with all major bourses and most sectors in negative territory.

Traders are gearing up for German federal elections this weekend with early projections of the result set to arrive Sunday evening.

British food delivery firm Deliveroo shed around 5% after losing a deal with Shell’s gas station convenience stores to rival Uber Eats.