Macro Roundup (Feb 22)

SHANGHAI, Feb 22 (SMM) — This is a roundup of global macroeconomic news last night and what is expected today.

The dollar lost ground on Friday as market participants favored currencies associated with risk-on sentiment over the safe-haven greenback.

Risk appetite was stoked by better-than-expected economic data and expectations that U.S. President Joe Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package will come to fruition.

On Wall Street, stock futures held steady in overnight trading on Sunday after the S&P 500 posted its first losing week in three.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 20 points. S&P 500 futures gained 0.2% and Nasdaq 100 futures were 0.2% higher.

The move in futures came after the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite snapped a two-week winning streak with a loss of 0.7% and 1.6%, respectively, last week.

Oil prices fell from recent highs for a second day on Friday as Texas energy firms began to prepare for restarting oil and gas fields shuttered by freezing weather.

Brent crude futures fell 1.6% to settle at $62.91 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures settled 2.12% lower at $59.24 per barrel.

Unusually cold weather in Texas and the Plains states curtailed up to 4 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil production and 21 billion cubic feet of natural gas, according to analysts.

Texas refiners halted about a fifth of the nation’s oil processing amid power outages and severe cold.

Gold prices edged higher on Friday, recovering from a more than seven-month low hit earlier as the U.S. dollar eased, but rising Treasury yields kept bullion on course for its biggest weekly drop since early January.

Spot gold was up 0.3% at $1,780.86 per ounce by 02:17 p.m. EST, after falling to its lowest since July 2 at $1,759.29 earlier.

The safe-haven metal was down about 2.4% so far this week, its biggest weekly drop since the week of Jan. 8.

The euro zone flash composite PMI, combining manufacturing and services activity, climbed to 48.1 in February from 47.8 in January. However, any reading below 50 indicates a contraction in business activity.

Germany’s composite PMI reading came in at 51.3, up from 50.8 in January, with anything above 50 representing an expansion. A surge in manufacturing activity offset a contraction in services.

French activity weakened to 45.2, down from 47.7 in January, as lockdown measures hit the country’s dominant services sector.

China kept the one-year loan prime rate (LPR) unchanged at 3.85%, largely in line with expectations of traders and analysts. The five-year LPR was also kept steady at 4.65%.

The LPR is a lending reference rate set monthly by 18 banks.

On the pandemic front, the White House said that it expects to ship out millions of delayed coronavirus vaccine doses this week after a sweeping winter storm disrupted logistics. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday that a New York resident has tested positive for the Covid-19 variant first identified in South Africa.