Macro Roundup (Apr 16)

SHANGHAI, Apr 16 (SMM) – This is a roundup of global macroeconomic news last night and what is expected in the day ahead.

The US dollar rose on Wednesday on investors intensified risk aversion as downbeat economic data from the US grew fears that the coronavirus impact on the world’s biggest economy will be protracted.

The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies, rebounded 0.71% to end at 99.573. 

LME base metals failed to hold onto gains from Tuesday, with tin leading the losses and dipping 2.13% overnight. Copper shed 1.48%, aluminium fell 0.2%, nickel slipped 1.13%, zinc lost 0.16% and lead went down 0.32%. 

SHFE nonferrous metals closed mixed on Wednesday. Lead was the worst performer with a 1.6% decline, copper fell 0.6%, zinc shed 0.3% and tin dipped 0.1%. Nickel advanced 0.5% and aluminium jumped 1.5%.

The US Commerce Department on Wednesday reported that US retail sales suffered a record drop in March as mandatory economy closures to control the spread of the COVID-19 depressed demand for a range of goods.

The retail sales plunged 8.7% in March, the biggest decline since the government started tracking the series in 1992, after dipping by a revised 0.4% in February. Excluding autos and gas, retail sales fell by 3.1%.

"Stricter lockdown measures, unprecedented layoffs and plummeting confidence have compounded into an extraordinary and multifaceted shock to consumer spending," economists at Oxford Economics said in a research report Wednesday.

US industrial production also slumped in March, falling 5.4% on the month and marking the steepest decline since early 1946, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday. Manufacturing production fell 6.3% in March, the biggest drop since February 1946.

The Fed said “the estimates in this release incorporated data on stay-at-home orders as well as other information on industrial activity for late in the month.”

US crude oil stockpiles rose by 19 million barrels in the week ended April 10, the biggest weekly increase in history, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said, as refiners slowed down operations due to slumping demand as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Key economic data slated for release today include the US weekly unemployment claims, its building permits and new housing starts for March, and Germany’s consumer price index (CPI) for March.