The ferrous complex remains in a state of paralysis as hopeful traders fight a deteriorating reality. Hopes a plenty! Hopes of more stimulus revived after China’s central bank said on Tuesday it would maintain “appropriately loose” monetary policy, keep liquidity ample while improving its policy transmission, as the economy still faces risks and challenges. The
DXY held last night. AIUD lifted anyway. CNY meh. Gold yeh. Are all metals AI now? The chosen one returns. EM meh. Is a downtrend forming in junk? Yields edged up. Stocks edged down. The US isn’t going to publish shutdown CPI or job numbers, straight out of Xi Jinping’s playbook. Helping gold. Credit Agricole
Risk markets continue to price in some stability returning to US governance with European shares also rallying on the better risk equation (aka less AI malevolence) with Wall Street again stumbling around overnight. The USD was relatively stable in the absence of any economic reports although it firmed against Yen and Pound Sterling while Euro
A poll put out by Resolve earlier this month asked respondents to say if they had a positive, neutral, or negative opinion of a list of federal politicians if they had heard of them. What it found was that compared with December last year, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had seen his standing improve from -17
The latest rental data from Cotality suggests that Australia’s rental market has tightened. Rental vacancy rates nationally fell to a new record low of 1.5% in October, down from 2.0% 12 months prior. The number of homes listed for rent across the combined capital cities has fallen to its lowest level on record for an
Another mixed day for Asian stock markets without a clear lead from Wall Street overnight as political machinations and a few central bank speeches within the region. The USD was largely unchanged although some commodity currencies moved higher while gold and the Australian dollar remained steady after holding on to their post weekend gap gains.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has slashed the official cash rate by 300 bps to 2.5%. Given New Zealand’s weak economy, which last week saw unemployment and underemployment increase to their highest rate since the pandemic peak, expectations are that the Reserve Bank will deliver additional rate relief heading into 2026. As illustrated below
JPM on the AI data centre rollout. It is large. The global data center and AI build-out will be an extraordinary and sustained capital markets event. Building out global data center and AI infrastructure and related power supplies could cost over $5 trillion in our view, with at least one consultant calling for $7 trillion
Sales in lower-tier Chinese cities are not going well. At the aggregate level, a hopeful year has turned bust. Inventory isn’t going anywhere. Yet completions remain stable. This has to fall, or the market will never adjust. Only forever to go.
The ABS updated its biannual series on life expectancy yesterday, and, according to the numbers, you will now, on average, die a few months earlier than before Albo’s election win. We should probably acknowledge some role for COVID, given that the dip has been a global phenomenon. We can ship that home to Albo’s mates