Weekly Market Recap
Asia Pacific
17/02/2020
Week in review
- NAB business confidence remained subdued
- Housing finance picked to 4.4% m/m
- RBNZ holds interest rates steady
Week ahead
- Australian labourmarket report
- RBA meeting minutes
- Global purchase managers indices
Thought of the week
Consumer and corporate sentiment remained subdued in January. The reasons are fairly clear given the impact of the bushfires and developments globally. While the survey figures may not have changed much month on month, the fact they remain below long run averages challenges the expectation of a rebound in investment and higher levels of capital expenditure to boost growth later in the year. Furthermore employment intentions were also lower in the January survey, despite the current muted view activity should pick up over the second half of the year in Australia. Stimulus measures to support bushfire relief and a pick up household spending should translate to higher rates of growth and a recovery in corporate confidence.
Consumer sentiment and business confidence
Z-score
Source: FactSet, NAB, Westpac, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, all returns in local currency unless otherwise stated.
Equity price levels and returns: Levels are prices and returns represent total returns for stated period.
Bond yields and returns: Yields are yield to maturity for government bonds and yield to worst for corporate bonds. All returns represent total returns. AusBond Comp is the AusBond Composite 0+ Yr,AusBond IG is the AusBond Credit 0+ Yr both provided by Bloomberg.
Currencies: All cross rates are against the Australian dollar. An appreciation of the foreign currency against the Australian dollar would be positive and a depreciation of the foreign currency against the Australian dollar would be negative.