China’s economy got off to a slow start in the third quarter, with key indicators gauging factory activity and mining, investment and general consumption falling in July to their lowest levels in months, official figures showed Monday.
The summer lull may continue to dampen stock market activity during the month of August, but there are two key events on the investor agenda this week. German GDP figures for Q2 and the minutes of the Fed’s late July meeting.
The markets are becoming increasingly sceptical about Trump’s ability to enforce any coherent economic policy mix. Even if his advisors in this field are seasoned bankers, the White House is rapidly losing its grip on critical decision-making areas, such as the budget stance.
There is not much in the way of major macro or corporate data due this week, but markets will be on the alert for any hints from regional Federal Reserve Chiefs’ as to what the US central bank’s next moves will be.
ATL Capital |For most people, the summer is a time for relaxing and taking a well-earned break from work. But it can also bring instability and suprises in the stock markets. While August has been a negative month for investments for the last eight years, it’s September which is traditionally the worst summertime month.
Nick Ottens via Atlantic Sentinel | Brexit and Trump may have made Europeans realize bad things can happen — and shocked them out of their complacency.
Analysts at Julius Baer think it is “comforting” to see that the bond market is efficient. In other words, they say that for German bond investors it is basically the same whether they invest in negative- yielding German Bunds or buy US bonds and pay for the hedging of the currency risk.
The reflation trade that boosted a rally in global stockmarkets after Donald Trump’s victory has been put to the test in recent weeks with the inflation data failing to deliver the sought-after hard facts. However, commodities as an asset class have for some time been somewhat isolated from the reflation debate
This week Spanish pharmaceutical firm Almirall issued a profit-warning, citing the negative impact of its US business. The stock price has dropped 30% in two days.
Not everything is clear through a crystal ball. The Fed is in the process of “normalising” interest rates, but one has to ask whether anyone really believes this…In other words, it appears the market is not convinced that the economy is getting stronger, nor that the inflation rate is hugely threatening.