Weekly Market Recap
Asia Pacific
06/04/2020
Week in review
- Chinese manufacturing surveys point towards recovery
- Australia building approvals jump 19.9% m/m
- Australia retail sales up 0.5% m/m
Week ahead
- RBA policy rate meeting
- Australia housing finance
- U.S. Federal Reserve meeting minutes.
Thought of the week
Two weeks ago jobless claims in the U.S. surged by a record 3.3 million in one week. Records are made to be broken and last week the claims number rocketed by 6.6 million. This is an early warning of what is to come as the U.S. hits the brakes and economic activity comes to a shuddering halt in the second quarter of the year. Perversely, the rise in claims numbers in the U.S. may be linked to the recently announced stimulus measures as some may be better off claiming the new higher unemployment insurance than staying in their current job. Either way, the unemployment rate in the U.S. could surge to record highs in the coming months. Officials remain focused on unemployment without poverty and economic pain without economic destruction to prep the economy for recovery.
Staring into the jobs abyss
U.S. initial jobless claims, millions
Source: FactSet, 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.