RBNZ Steps Up To Provide More Liquidity To Companies
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand announced on Monday that it was planning to start buying corporate bonds from banks this week to keep business well supplied with liquidity
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Is Coronavirus Driving A Recession, Depression Or An Economic Hit Like No Other?
Is Coronavirus driving a recession, depression or an economic hit like no other? What does it mean for the bear market in shares?
Read MoreUS Unemployment Claims Hit A Record 3.28m
More than 3 million people filed a claim for unemployment benefits last week in the US as the COVID-19 pandemic closed businesses, cities and entire American states.
Read MoreABS Begins To Quantify Virus Damage
Tens of thousands of jobs across the economy continue to be lost as the Australian Bureau of Statistics said yesterday that one survey had found that half of Australian businesses have reported an adverse impact because of the coronavirus pandemic with 86% expecting to be hit in coming months.
Read MoreUS Investors Prepare For Once Unthinkable Job Losses
At 3.30 am Sydney time on this Friday, we will get confirmation that the world’s biggest economy had been brought to a dramatic and brutal halt by the coronavirus pandemic. That’s when the initial jobless claims for last week will be reported by the US Labor Department.
Read MoreReserve Bank Attempts To “Build A Bridge” Over Very Troubled Waters
The RBA has rolled out a series of measures that it hopes will help Australia “build a bridge” and eventually bounce back from the current disaster. Expect the low cash rate of 0.25% to be around for at least three years as the COVID-19 pandemic wreaks havoc on the local and global economy.
Read MoreFebruary Jobs Data Only Tells Half The Story
There were more signs in the February labour market data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics that confirmed that the Australian jobs market is weakening towards a slide.
Read MoreRBA Steps Up Virus Battle With Emergency Rate Cut
The Reserve Bank will leave its cash rate at the new record low of 0.25% until the economy rights itself and emerges from the COVID-19 crisis. In a coordinated response banking and financial regulator, APRA is also relaxing the current capital adequacy requirements on banks.
Read More“Hit Far Harder Than Projected”: S&P Calls Global Recession
Credit rater, S&P global says we are looking at a global economic recession because of the coronavirus pandemic, while the ANZ has joined Westpac’s economics team in forecasting a recession in Australia this year.
Read MoreWall St Bounces As Fed Intervention Calms Investor Nerves
The Aussie dollar fell to new 17 year lows under 60 US cents after the greenback rose and Wall Street ended the day with gains of 5%-6% after a major move by the US Federal Reserve calmed nervy investors large and small.
Read MoreNew Zealand Rolls Out Spending Spree To Fight Virus Downturn
The New Zealand government of Jacinda Arden has revealed a massive coronavirus assistance package that aims to support businesses and their employees through the looming downturn.
Read MoreRBNZ Follows Fed With Emergency Rate Cut
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has joined the growing list of central banks making an emergency cut in its key interest rate on Monday morning, slashing the Official Cash Rate from 1% to a new record low of 0.25%.
Read MoreFed Rolls Out Massive QE Program, Slashes Rates To Near Zero
The US Federal Reserve has slashed its key interest rate and will start a massive $US700 billion in a new round of quantitative easing to try and ease growing pressures in US financial markets caused by the growing damage the spread of the COVID-19 virus is doing in the US.
Read MoreFed Pumps In $1.5 Trillion Amid Crashing Markets
The Federal Reserve pumped $US1.5 trillion into the US financial system on Thursday to try and provide enough liquidity to ease the stress in short-term funding and US Treasury markets.
Read MoreTrump Travel Ban Overshadows Canberra’s Stimulus Shot
Retailers and small to medium businesses, apprentices and people on welfare benefits are the initial winners from the Morrison government’s coronavirus stimulus package.
Read MoreNAB Economists Call “Yield Curve Control” By May
The National Australia Bank now sees the Reserve Bank cutting rates to 0.25% and adopting a number of unconventional monetary policy tools to battle the impact of the rapid coronavirus-driven deterioration in both the local and global economies.
Read MoreTreasury Warns On “Prolonged” Virus Driven Downturn
The Australian economy will shrink by at least 0.5% during the current March quarter due to the coronavirus outbreak with the figure likely to increase as the epidemic continues to spread.
Read MoreChina Surveys Show Economy In Freefall
There’s further confirmation that the Chinese economy is in a deep recession. Two surveys of China’s service sector activity showed record falls, days after two similar surveys showed a similar situation in the country’s huge manufacturing sector.
Read MoreNo Recession Yet, But GDP Read Receives Mixed Reviews
Here’s a couple of views of the December quarter GDP rise of 0.5% quarter on quarter and 2.2% through the year (which was helped by a 0.2% revision upwards to 0.6% growth in the three months to September).
Read MoreVirus Free GDP Surprises With 0.5% December Growth
The Australian economy grew by a better than expected 0.5% in the final three months of 2019, supported by household spending in November in the so-called Black Friday sales, government spending and higher business inventories (mostly iron ore and coal).
Read MoreRBA First Central Bank To Cut Rates To Cope With Coronavirus
The RBA has become the first central bank to respond directly to the growing impact of the virus on economic growth, especially in China and especially after last week’s massive sell-off.
Read MoreAustralia Flirts With Recession Without Virus Hit
Judging from the weaker than forecast final data for the December quarter’s national accounts, and the even weaker January data, the Australian economy has moved very close to the edge of a slump into negative territory before the coronavirus hit in February.
Read MoreWill China’s Growth Rebound This Year?
The COVID-19 outbreak has put the brakes on Chinese growth in the short-term. Three key data points bear watching for signs of a rebound.
Read MoreLed By HNA Coronavirus Unmasks China’s Debt Binge
China is hovering on the edge of a major crisis – the COVID-19 crisis has strangled manufacturing and services, left wide areas of the country silent and now it is hitting some of the country’s heavily indebted financial and industrial groups.
Read MoreCollapse In China Manufacturing Data Points To Recession
Watch markets in Asia and Australia slide today when trading resumes in Asia – the plunge in manufacturing activity in China in February was starling, much worse than any forecasts and will trigger a new round of instability, especially with COVID-19 cases outside China growing faster than inside that country.
Read MoreRBA ’50/50′ Chance To Cut Rates Amid Data Deluge
Bushfire damage and coronavirus are now big factors for the RBA tomorrow. Then there’s the December quarter GDP figures in the national accounts on Wednesday, plus the start of month data on retail sales, building approvals, house prices, trade, and car sales.
Read MoreChina Cuts Lending Rates To Combat Coronavirus Slowdown
On top of the injection of billions of yuan in liquidity into money markets that have supported both share and bond markets, China’s central bank has now cut key interest rates to try and support the economy hit by the COVID-19 virus.
Read More“Still Plenty Of Slack”: Wage Growth Underwhelms
As forecast by the Reserve Bank earlier this month, wage growth remained sluggish in the December quarter, rising by just 0.5% or an annual 2.2% thanks to a fall in growth in public service pay.
Read MoreNAB Economists Sound Warning On Jobs Market
The NAB January business survey revealed that the proportion of Australian businesses planning to boost hiring levels fell sharply last month, suggesting sluggish economic growth may see employment growth slow in the months ahead.
Read MoreFood Stockpiling Pushes China Inflation Higher
As expected the high price of pork again kept China’s Consumer Price Inflation well above 5% as consumers chased supplies of the meat for the Lunar New Year festival and ahead of the sudden worsening in the coronavirus crisis.
Read MoreNovember Boom Cannibalises December Retail Sales
Santa didn’t stop at Australian retailers in December 2019 and where he paused, shoppers were not very enthusiastic.
Read MoreNew Car Sales Still Stuck In Reverse
Car sales have started 2020 in their weakest state since the GFC with the lowest January figures for 8 years.
Read MorePhil Lowe Outlines Balancing Act To Keep Rates On Hold
Unless the impact of the bushfires, the coronavirus crisis in China and the general weakness in consumer spending look like they are dragging the economy lower, don’t expect any rate cuts from the Reserve Bank this year.
Read MoreCaution Surrounds House Price Rebound
At its meeting in Sydney today, The Reserve Bank will have noted the sharp rise in house prices in January as it hopes for the increases to flow through to help consumers feel more upbeat and confidence through the so-called wealth effect.
Read MoreRBA Rate Decision: What To Watch For
By the end of the week we should have a good idea what the RBA thinks as to where the economy is headed with several major updates to be released and two speeches from Governor Phil Lowe.
Read MoreFive Charts To Watch Regarding The Global Economy & Markets This Year
Our high-level investment view for this year is that a combination of improving global growth-boosting profits and still easy monetary conditions will help drive reasonable investment returns, albeit more modest than the very strong gains of 2019. This note revisits five charts we see as critical to the outlook.
Read MoreDecember Quarter CPI To Keep The RBA At Bay
Don’t expect the Reserve Bank to do anything to interest rates at its first meeting for 2020 next Tuesday, or for most of the rest of the year. After three rate cuts in 2019, inflation has not yet moved to the bottom of the RBA’s preferred 2% to 3% range over time.
Read MoreJobs Data Buries Rate Cut Hopes
The uncertainty in the national labour market was again underlined by the December data issued by the ABS which showed a surprise dip in the jobless rate to a nine-month low of 5.1% from 5.2% in November and 5.3% in October.
Read MoreChina Trade Data Holds Ground Despite Tariff War
For all the talk of the damage the US trade war would do to Chinese exports, the impact, while very noticeable, wasn’t as dramatic as many analysts had claimed.
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