In the global markets week covering Monday 11 to Friday 15, a resurgence of coronavirus weighed down investor sentiment. For instance, there have been new cases in Wuhan, China with fears that COVID 2.0 is gaining momentum. In the week, the FED emphasized that it will not play a part in pushing rates below 0%.
US-CHINA tensions were reignited in the week with President Trump threatening to expand the sanctions beyond trade and technology. Late Friday, Trump ordered the main US federal government pension fund to shun Chinese stocks opening a new front in the war. Q1 data reveals that Chinese direct investments in the US dropped to $200 million in comparison to an average of $2 billion per quarter in 2019. There were media reports that White House has blocked a shipment of semiconductors destined to Huawei technologies from global supply chains.
Currencies – The Turkish Lira remained battered in the week with the dollar index falling about 0.15%. However, there was some reprieve on Friday on reports that Turkish authorities held talks with Japan and the UK on possible foreign funding. The Euro was up 0.33% trading at $1.084 against the US dollar.
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Tuesday – overall US CPI declined in by 0.8 in April indicating a fall in consumption across major industries. The CPI excludes volatile food and fuel costs.
Wednesday – Weekly US Crude inventories fell by 700,000 barrels for the week ending May 8 data from the Energy Information Administration revealed marking the first weekly decline in 16 weeks.
Thursday – US weekly unemployment claims seems to be cooling off with 2.981 million reported in the week down from 3.3 million reported the previous week. However, employment stats across US markets remain devastating with 36.5 million people have filed for unemployment in the last 7 weeks.
Friday – Data from the US department of Commerce shows that retail sales plunged 16.4 percent in April a measure of deteriorating American economic health.
