This week's review
Another week has passed, and another week in review is here. The news is a little more spread out this week, and the United States released very few economic reports of note this week, with most of the activity coming from following around the major economic policy makers. Around the globe, a wide variety of reports were released, with varying degrees of good, bad, or expected news.
Without one obvious big story, maybe now is a good time just to jump into this week’s report on the week in review.
Starting in the States
There weren’t any traditionally major economic reports released this week from the United States, although there was a lot of news. Some events of note were Secretary of the Treasury Geithner made appearances at two major meetings, at the Senate Hearing on TARP, as well as at a meeting with the House Financial Subcommittee. The Federal Open Market Committee also released their meeting minutes, while the dollar fell in conjunction with rising oil prices. A report also showed that 44 states had lost jobs in April, although California by far and away is being hit hardest by the economic slow down, and the largest bank failure of 2009 has taken place as Florida based BankUnited was seized and sold to the Carlyle Group. All in all for the United States, it was a pretty quiet week.
A couple reports from Canada
There were two major reports released from Canada this week. One was the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The year on year results of the most recent CPI showed a changed of 0.4% as opposed to the 0.6% predicted. This shows that interest rate pressures have been minimal since oil fell from its all time high last year.
The retail sales report for the month of March was released, as well, and shows a month to month increase of 0.3% as opposed to the 0.5% that had been predicted.
Across the pond to the Isles
There were several major reports to come from the Brits this week. First, the Consumer Price Index year on year numbers for April show a change of 2.3%, which is slightly off the 2.4% that was predicted, but not by enough to make a lot of waves.
The Bank of England released minutes to their meeting, but this was overshadowed by the Retail Sales report that would follow. The retail sales report for April showed slightly better than expected gains of 2.6% as opposed to the 2.4% that had been projected.
And last but not least, the GDP for the year was released and showed a -4.1% contraction from last year’s first quarter, as well as a -1.9% contraction in the first quarter of 2009 versus the fourth quarter of 2008.
Over the Channel to the Continent
There were two important economic reports from the European Union this week. The first was the Euro-Zone trade balance, which showed a surplus of 0.4 billion Euro. Expectations had been for a -0.3 billion deficit, and the surplus is due in part to slightly better than expected exports and continuing reduction of retail spending curbing the demand for imports.
In addition to this, the Euro-Zone ZEW economic survey for the month of May showed a surprising upsurge in optimism. While a score of 18 was predicted, the actual score turned out to be much higher at 28.5, showing that a large percentage of economists involved believe that there is reason to be optimistic about the direction the economy is taking, even if the early signs aren’t all sunshine and roses.
Across Asia to Japan
Japan only released one major report this week. The Gross Domestic Product 1st quarter annualized report showed a horrendous drop of -15.2%, which was still better than the -16.1% predicted, but still too much of a down number to take any positive comfort from.
A duo from the Aussies
There were two reports of note from Australia. One was that Treasury Secretary Henry took the time to speak publically on the economy and progress being made towards recovery. The second was the “Consumer Inflation Expectation” that came in at 2.3%, and is a number that may bear some watching.
In Summary
It was a mixed bag of news reports this week, with some nations unusually quiet while others had some good or bad news to share. On the positive side, the general optimism about the economy turning around by the end of the year seems to not only be holding, but perhaps even spreading to other nations whose economists were not so optimistic even a few weeks ago. It’s a cautious optimism for sure, but even when reports come out with bad news, the overall feel of things is more stable than previous weeks.
So keep up with your fundamental and technical analysis, and as always, good trading!
