Key under-achieving data from the world's two biggest economies

Economy Watch

Kia ora,

Welcome to Monday’s Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand.

I'm David Chaston and this is the international edition from Interest.co.nz.

Today we lead with news that signs of economic under-achievement seem to be cropping up everywhere.

First though, at the end of this week we have the long weekend holiday, for Labour Day. But first, the week ahead will feature October 'flash' PMIs from all over and the third week of Wall Street Q3 earnings results. In the US they will release September durable goods order data. Canada will chime in with a central bank rate decision (probably a -50 bps cut), and there will be confidence survey results from all over. Finally South Korea will release its Q3-2024 GDP growth rate, expected to be a bit north of +2%.

Over the weekend there were no surprises in US housing start data for September, coming in just as expected and the general level it has been at for most of 2024.

And Wall Street's Q3 earnings season reporting is building with 14% of S&P500 companies reporting so far, and the results are quite positive, reinforcing investor risk appetites.

The US also reported its federal budget deficit for September over the weekend. It was a surplus of US$64 bln for the month. For the month, receipts jumped +13% from a year earlier, while outlays sank by -23%. But for the full fiscal year, it ended -US$1.8 tln in deficit (with interest costs exceeding US$1 tln for the first time). At that level the total deficit is equivalent to -6.3% of one year's economic activity in the country. This is up from -6.1% of GDP in 2023.

Across the Pacific, China’s new home prices in their 70 major cities fell -5.7% in September from a year ago, more than the -5.3% fall in the previous month. It was the 15th straight month of decrease and the steepest pace since May 2015. Second hand houses seem to have fallen by much more, by -10.7%. This sector won't be helping China's "wealth effect".

Meanwhile China said its Q3-2024 GDP expanded by +4.6%, marginally better than the +4.5% expected but less than Beijing's 5% target. They also said industrial production improved by +5.4% and retail sales were up +3.2%, on the same basis. Their jobless rate fell slightly, to 5.1%.

Later today, China is expected to cut its Loan Prime Rates by -20 bps, their tenth consecutive cut since the pandemic, and to a record low. The have never raised these rates since they introduced them on 2019 - only ever cuts.

And China's support of equity markets has almost hit ¥2 tln. With the Beijing 'put' in play, it is now not possible to read anything into Chinese equity market signals, especially when they rise. That may only indicate the size of the manipulation.

Japan said its inflation rate fell to 2.5% in September from 3.0% in August. This was its lowest level since April. (It was also 3.0% in September 2023.)

The regular ECB survey of professional forecasters shows that expectations are low for the bloc over the next two years to 2026. They see inflation staying under control, economic expansion rising to only modest levels, and their jobless rate staying little-changed.

And in Australia, suddenly their housing market seems quite fragile. This past weekend, they may have had only a 40% auction clearance rate in Sydney, a very sharp and fast fall from their 'usual' levels of about 70%.

The UST 10yr yield is now at just on 4.08% and unchanged from yesterday.

The price of gold will start today at US$2720/oz and up +US$3 from Saturday - and yet another new all-time high.

Oil prices are -50 USc lower at just over US$69/bbl in the US while the international Brent price is now just on US$73/bbl. These levels are -US$6/bbl lower than a week ago.

The Kiwi dollar starts today at 60.7 USc and little-changed from this time Saturday. Against the Aussie we are +10 bps firmer at 90.6 AUc. Against the euro we are unchanged to 55.9 euro cents. That all means our TWI-5 starts today still just under 69.2, unchanged from Saturday at this time and little-changed from a week ago.

The bitcoin price starts today at US$68,582 and down -0.4% from this time Saturday. Volatility over the past 24 hours has been low at under +/- 0.5%.

You can find links to the articles mentioned today in our show notes.

You can get more news affecting the economy in New Zealand from interest.co.nz.

Kia ora. I'm David Chaston. And we will do this again tomorrow.