The first day of June will bring along lots and lots of fundamental reports to keep the financial markets busy and excited.
First off, there was a policy meeting of the Reserve Bank of Australia, where the interest rate was kept unchanged at 0.1%.
In Europe, Switzerland published its latest GDP growth reports, which indicated that the economy did worse in the first quarter of 2021 than expected, with negative growth of -0.5% against a forecast of -0.2%.
There were also some PMI reports from Europe. Spain’s manufacturing PMI narrowly failed to meet the forecast for May, as did Switzerland’s.
Italy’s manufacturing PMI was better than expected, though the country delivered some disappointing employment data to make up for it. Italy also published its GDP growth rate reports for Q1, which showed a better than expected performance.
The eurozone-wide manufacturing PMI, as well as Germany’s report were both better than the forecasts. Germany also did well in its latest unemployment change statistic.
The United Kingdom also published its manufacturing PMI data for May, which was lower than anticipated, disappointing investors.
More importantly, today the EU published its flash inflation rate reports for May, which were consistently higher than forecasted. This positive data was also reinforced by a lower than expected unemployment rate, showing that the European economy is steadily recovering.
Before the day is over we shall also receive the Q1 GDP growth rate numbers from Canada, as well as the Markit and ISM manufacturing PMIs from the United States.
Thanks to broad optimism in the market, fueled by hopes (and signs) of a global economic recovery, experts expect the demand for oil will steadily increase in the coming months, a stance that may be reflected in today’s OPEC+ meeting. The cartel and its allies may revise their quotas for oil exports considering these developments.
For now, oil prices are on the rise again, with Brent finally reaching $70 per barrel today. The WTI brand climbed to $68.28 per barrel. Note, however, that prices might turn downward again if Iran manages to renew its nuclear deal with the UN and starts pumping more oil into the market, as its own production is currently unaccounted for by OPEC.
Stock indices in the United States and Europe today will be on the rise, also reflecting investors’ optimism about a global recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
