Global Markets

The Reserve Bank of Australia kept rates unchanged for third straight meeting and last under current Governor Lowe, but once again did not shut the door on further tightening

Watch today’s US Open for insights on the US data dump, another poor PMI from China and continued fears around the property market and more

Core PCE printed at 4.2% y/y, up from the last release of 4.1% y/y, and headline inflation was higher at 3.3% y/y (compared with the previous 3% y/y). The upticks were due to base effects. Although regarded as volatile, the monthly figures for core and headline PCE were flat, and in line with projections at 0.2% m/m. This is annualised to 2.43%.

Job creation in the US decelerated for August, as indicated by the ADP report. This suggests that the U.S. economy, which has been resilient, could potentially be entering a phase of moderation due to the increased influence of elevated interest rates.

Yesterday’s JOLTS data came in at 8.83m. This was lower than the previous 9.17m and below the consensus of 9.49m. This reiterates the part of Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s Jackson Hole speech suggesting that the US labour market is continuing to rebalance. Chair Powell pointed out that “Job openings remain high but are trending lower” and that “The rebalancing of the labour market has continued over the past year but…

Watch today’s US Open for insights on the blowout results of AI pioneer Nvidia, poor EZ &UK PMIs and monetary policy outlook ahead of the Fed’s Jackson Hole Symposium

Chinese authorities are trying to prop the frail recovery, but are sticking to modest actions so far and today’s timid rate cut by the central bank was another sign of that

This week’s data from the UK showed that headline inflation eased further in July, but remains far from target and that wages increased further, keeping pressure on BoE for further monetary tightening

A big Chinese trust company, Zhongrong International Trust Co., is causing concerns because they have not been making payments on their investments lately. This company is typically involved in real estate and has been having trouble with payments on many of their investment products. This, along with home prices going down, is making people worried that the ongoing property crisis in China is making the economy's slow growth even worse.

Real yields have an effect on the USDOLLAR, Gold and Risk Indexes.

China unexpectedly cut the medium-term lending facility (MLF) by 15bps to 2.5%. This is the biggest cut since 2020. This action is to provide support to an economy that is currently grappling with renewed challenges stemming from a deteriorating property market and sluggish consumer expenditure.