Market movers today
Today is another quiet day in terms of global data releases with only tier-2 releases.
In the UK, an economic survey from Bank of England is due out, which will give us more insight into companies’ investment intentions, wage growth etc.
In the US, we get the third release of Q4 GDP, pending homes sales in February and advance goods trade balance in February.
In both Sweden and Norway, retail sales for February are due out this morning (08:00 and 09:30 CET, respectively).
Selected market news
The US S&P500 ended 1.7% lower yesterday, as tech stocks plunged due to the story about the US blocking Chinese investments in tech companies (see more below) and poor risk appetite in general. The fall came after a good day on the European markets, where EURO STOXX 50 ended 1.2% higher. The bad mood in the US has spilled over to the Asian markets, where all the major indices are flashing red this morning. US 10Y Treasuries are now trading below 2.80%, the lowest since early February.
The North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un has met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a surprise visit to Beijing, where he said he is willing to denuclearise if the US and South Korea recognise the North Korean state and is still willing to meet with both the US and South Korea, see Bloomberg. Xi Jinping said it will remain a friend with North Korea because of to ‘strategic choices’.
According to sources, the Trump administration is considering to restrict Chinese investments in tech companies, see Bloomberg. Trump has given Treasury Secretary Mnuchin 60 days to come up with solutions after the results of the US investigation on Chinese theft of US intellectual property rights and this is likely one of them. The story was partly backed by comments from Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. We still expect the trade war to end up being more verbal than economical but in any case, it is going to be very slowly fought and not a theme that will go away for the next couple of months (at least),
In case you missed it, we published our Nordic Outlook yesterday with new macroeconomic forecasts for Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. The recovery continues both in the world economy and in the Nordic countries but with a few more reservations than in our early January update.
According to The Times, the UK government may soon release its plan on the solution to the Irish border issue, which remains one of the biggest obstacles for the Brexit negotiations.
