China Manufacturing Expands for 3rd Consecutive Month

China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported an increase in non-manufacturing PMI to 53.60 in May, from 53.20 in the earlier month. It was the third consecutive month of growth in the service sector and robust since January. New business expanded

Read More

US Economy Records Steepest Contraction in 12 yrs

The US economy contracted by an annual rate of 4.8% in 1Q2020, halting the lengthiest time frame of growth in the nation’s history, as per advance estimate. Notably, the GDP shrank at the sharpest rate in 12 years, far worse

Read More

South African Rand Weakens to 18 Mark Against Greenback

The South African rand weakened above the 18 level against the greenback Friday as investors were worried that tensions between Beijing and Washington could heighten further after China made initiatives to implement a fresh security law in Hong Kong. Last

Read More

US Factory Activity Contracts for 3rd Successive Month while Turkey Delivers 9th Rate Cut

Turkish lira remained unchanged at 6.80 against the greenback yesterday, as the 50 basis points rate cut announced by the Central Bank of Turkey (CBRT- Türkiye Cumhuriyet Merkez Bankası or TCMB) was in line with analysts’ estimates. The rate cut

Read More

US Housing Starts, Building Permits Plummets to Lowest Level in 5 Years

In the US, housing starts plummeted 30.2% m-o-m to 891,000 in April, missing economists’ forecasts of 927,000. Housing activity froze due to limitations enforced to prevent the Covid-19 outbreak, leading to the lowest level since February 2015. Housing starts for

Read More

Colombia GDP Contracts 4.9% y-o-y in March

The Colombian peso fell 0.71% against the greenback to close at 3,904.78 Friday following the release of economic data which indicated a sharp economic contraction on y-o-y basis in March 2020. Notably, on yearly basis, the country’s retail sales also

Read More

New Zealand Manufacturing PMI Hits New Low while Mexico Trims Interest Rate by 50bps

According to the Business New Zealand, the Performance of Manufacturing Index decreased to 26.1 in April 2020, from 38 in March 2020. The reading reflected the lowest level in manufacturing activity since the series started getting published. All five sub-indices

Read More

Mexican Industrial Output Declines to Lowest Level in 9-yrs While China CPI Misses Expectations

The Mexican peso gained 0.05% to trade at 24.3379 against the greenback despite a 5% m-o-m drop in the industrial production in March, following an amended 2% decline in the earlier month and compared with economists expectation for a 6.1%

Read More

Crude Gains For Second Successive Week Despite 20.5mln Job Losses in US

Wall Street ended strongly in green Friday in spite of a new historical job loss of 20.50 million in April and a record high unemployment rate of 14.7%. Stocks gained on investors’ optimism about reopening of the economy soon and

Read More

Japan Services PMI Records New Historical Low in April

The Japanese yen is losing ground against the greenback after the release of a series of poor PMI (Composite, services) and household sepnding data from Japan. At the time of writing this article, the USD/JPY pair was trading at 106.45.

Read More