China’s Belt and Road Initiative, launched in 2013, aims to promote connectivity and cooperation in infrastructure, trade, finance, and people-to-people exchanges by connecting Asia with Europe and Africa through the Middle East and across the Pacific to Latin American countries

Source: IMF

Commento

TANKAN

The Bank of Japan’s 2Q Tankan is likely to show business optimism waning. U.S. tariffs on steel and the threat of higher levies on autos may have hurt sentiment of big manufacturers

Overall investment plans are holding up reasonably well – pointing to resilience in domestic demand

ISM MANUFACTURING

The ISM Manufacturing Index maintained a strong reading for September, brushing off disruptions from Hurricane Florence and the latest salvos in the trade war

New orders and production both stayed above 60, a sign that conditions in the sector should remain healthy in the months ahead

U.S. LABOUR MARKET

U.S. hiring cooled in September by more than forecast, wage gains eased slightly and the jobless rate fell to a 48-year low, illustrating a tight labor market

The drop in the jobless rate reinforced expectations for a fourth interest-rate hike by the Federal Reserve this year and several more in 2019 as President Donald Trump’s tax cuts boost jobs

⇒ U.S. JOBLESS RATE HITS 48-YEAR LOW

Source: Bloomberg

Important News

  • In a speech to the National Associate for Business Economics, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell hailed a “remarkably positive outlook” for the US economy. When asked about the inflation implications from tariffs, he replied that so far this has not been seen in the data
  • On Wednesday the italian government said that it would target a budget deficit of 2.1% of gross domestic product for 2020 and 1.8% of GDP for 2021, whilst sticking to the 2.4% deficit for next year
  • Data from the Turkish Statistical Institute showed that consumer prices rose to 24.5% in September year-on-year, up from August’s 17.9%

Source: Bloomberg and EFG AM

Reactions

Indicies and Equity Sectors

The information provided has been compiled with the utmost care. WMM does not provide any guarantee (including resposability to third parties) regarding the accuracy, updating, reliability and completeness of the published contents. Furthermore, the published content does not constitute a solicitation or an offer to use the services of WMM, nor does it constitute any form of advice