ASIA:
Property prices in Singapore have climbed in the past two years, and will likely keep going up despite the government’s efforts to cool the market, CNBC reported. Private residential prices could rise between 1% to 3% in 2022, according to Leonard Tay, head of research at real estate agency Knight Frank Singapore. Prices of public housing flats on the resale market also popped 12.7% last year, data from the Housing and Development Board showed. In a bid to cool the red-hot private and public residential property market, Singapore introduced new measures in mid-December. They included higher taxes on second and subsequent property purchases and tighter limits on loans.
The major Asian stock markets had a mixed day today:
- NIKKEI 225 decreased 191.12 points or -0.70% to 27,248.87
- Shanghai increased 68.14 points or 2.03% to 3,429.58
- Hang Seng increased 6.26 points or 0.03% to 24.579.55
- ASX 200 decreased 9.40 points or -0.13% to 7,110.80
- Kospi decreased 5.20 points or -0.19% to 2,745.06
- SENSEX decreased 1,023.63 points or -1.75% to 57,621.19
- Nifty50 decreased 302.70 points or -1.73% to 17,213.60
The major Asian currency markets had a mixed day today:
- AUDUSD increased 0.00327 or 0.46% to 0.71075
- NZDUSD increased 0.00075 or 0.11% to 0.66189
- USDJPY decreased 0.122 or -0.11% to 115.074
- USDCNY increased 0.00409 or 0.06% to 6.36536
Precious Metals:
- Gold increased 9.64 USD/t oz. or 0.53% to 1,817.13
- Silver increased 0.453 USD/t. oz or 2.02% to 22.933
Some economic news from last night:
China:
Caixin Services PMI (Jan) decreased from 53.1to 51.4
Chinese Composite PMI decreased from 51.0 to 50.1
Japan:
Foreign Reserves (USD) (Jan) decreased from 1,405.8B to 1,385.9B
South Korea:
FX Reserves – USD (Jan) decreased from 463.12B to 461.53B
Australia：
AIG Services Index (Dec) increased from 49.6 to 56.2
MI Inflation Gauge (MoM) increased from 0.2% to 0.4%
ANZ Job Advertisements (MoM) increased from -5.8% to -0.3%
Retail Sales (MoM) (Jan) decreased from 7.3% to -4.4%
Retail Sales (QoQ) (Q4) increased from -4.4% to 8.2%
Some economic news from today
China:
FX Reserves (USD) (Jan) decreased from 3.250T to 3.222T
Japan:
Coincident Indicator (MoM) (Dec) decreased from 3.0% to -0.2%
Leading Index (MoM) (Dec) decreased from 1.7% to 0.4%
Leading Index increased from 103.9 to 104.3
Singapore:
Foreign Reserves USD (MoM) (Jan) increased from 417.9B to 418.4B
EUROPE/EMEA:
A group of business leaders will claim this week that an export-focused strategy could boost Britain’s economy by almost £500bn a year. The Global Britain Commission report, due to be published on Wednesday, will call on the country to match the performance of Germany and focus on building exports to emerging markets such as Mexico. Sir Roger Marsh, the commissioner of the report, told the Daily Mail that the plan is “a restatement of Britain’s prowess when it comes to being a global trading nation.”
The report claims that Britain’s per capita export performance was slightly more than half that of Germany. Exports of goods and services in the UK in 2020 were around £8,597 per capita compared with £15,645 in Germany. If Britain could reach the same level as Germany, it would be worth £474bn to the UK economy, creating millions of jobs and increasing wages in export-related jobs by 7%, the report claims.
Commenting on the UK’s hopes for further post-Brexit trade deals, international trade minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said that Britain still wants a deal with the US but would concentrate on “doing all the groundwork first” and that “across the US from businesses, business councils, governors at a state level, [there is] huge engagement.”
The major Europe stock markets had a green day:
- CAC 40 increased 57.87 points or 0.83% to 7,009.25
- FTSE 100 increased 57.07 points or 0.76% to 7,573.47
- DAX 30 increased 107.08 points or 0.71% to 15,206.64
The major Europe currency markets had a mixed day today:
- EURUSD decreased 0.00173 or -0.15% to 1.14339
- GBPUSD increased 0.00034 or 0.03% to 1.35308
- USDCHF decreased 0.00122 or -0.13% to 0.92429
Some economic news from Europe today:
Swiss:
Unemployment Rate n.s.a. (Jan) remain the same at 2.6%
Unemployment Rate s.a. (Jan) decreased from 2.4% to 2.3%
UK:
Halifax House Price Index (YoY) decreased from 9.8% to 9.7%
Halifax House Price Index (MoM) (Jan) decreased from 1.1% to 0.3%
Germany:
German Industrial Production (MoM) (Dec) decreased from 0.3% to -0.3%
Norway:
Manufacturing Production (MoM) (Dec) decreased from -0.9% to -1.6%
France:
French Reserve Assets Total (Jan) increased from 223,787.0M to 224,650.0M
Euro Zone:
Sentix Investor Confidence (Feb) increased from 14.9 to 16.6
US/AMERICAS:
Google is once again in the spotlight for allegedly manipulating search results. Swedish firm PriceRunner is suing Google for $2.4 billion, claiming the search engine is “abusing the market to a very high extent.” Google claims they made changes to their shopping ads back in 2017 and claim innocence. This comes on the tail end of Google losing 2.42 billion euros for the same charge after a seven-year investigation.
Frontier announced plans to acquire Spirit Airlines for # billion, creating the fifth-largest carrier in America. Spirit CEO Ted Christie said the move will help the airliners to keep costs low and improve guest experience. Frontier shareholders will own 51.5% while Spirit stockholders will own 48.5%. Spirit shareholders are to receive 1.9126 in shares of Frontier in addition to $2.13 for each Spirit share owned.
US Market Closings:
- Dow advanced 1.39 points or 0% to 35,091.13
- S&P 500 declined 16.66 points or -0.37% to 4,483.87
- Nasdaq declined 82.34 points or -0.58% to 14,015.67
- Russell 2000 advanced 10.24 points or 0.51% to 2,012.6
Canada Market Closings:
- TSX Composite declined 36.35 points or -0.17% to 21,235.5
- TSX 60 declined 2.75 points or -0.21% to 1,291.31
Brazil Market Closing:
- Bovespa declined 248.54 points or -0.22% to 111,996.4
ENERGY:
The oil markets had a mixed day today:
- Crude Oil decreased 0.96 USD/BBL or -1.04% to 91.3500
- Brent decreased 0.45 USD/BBL or -0.48% to 92.8200
- Natural gas decreased 0.415 USD/MMBtu or -9.08% to 4.1570
- Gasoline increased 0.0071 USD/GAL or 0.27% to 2.6856
- Heating oil decreased 0.0134 USD/GAL or -0.47% to 2.8617
The above data was collected around 12:16 EST on Monday
- Top commodity gainers: Bitumen (4.46%) and Aluminum (2.54%), Coal (3.96%), Lumber (4.21%)
- Top commodity losers: Palladium (-2.62%), Oat(-2.05%), Palm Oil(-1.55%) and Natural Gas(-9.08%)
The above data was collected around 12:33 EST on Monday.
BONDS:
Japan 0.207%(+0.8bp), US 2’s 1.2984% (-0.02%), US 10’s 1.9303% (+1.46bps); US 30’s 2.2358% (+0.02%), Bunds 0.23% (+2.2bp), France 0.673% (+2.4bp), Italy 1.809% (+5.4bp), Turkey 21.52% (-13bp), Greece 2.372% (+28.3bp), Portugal 1.031% (+5.3bp); Spain 1.098% (+5bp) and UK Gilts 1.407% (-0.2bp).
