The start of the new week comes with very little to report in terms of fundamental publications. Mostly there were several reports from Japan, of which a higher than expected leading economic index is the most noteworthy. In Europe, Switzerland’s unemployment rate was lower than the forecast at 3.6% in February.
The coronavirus pandemic remains in the headlines, as cases have been on the rise worldwide for the third week in a row (as per seven-day averages). There have been over 117.5 million cases worldwide.
The United States (29.6 million cases) continues to see its daily infections numbers decline, thanks to a partial mask mandate and widespread vaccinations. Brazil (11 million cases) is at the polar opposite, marking the second-highest number of new Covid-19 cases yesterday as part of a trend of rising infections in the country. Cases are also on the rise in several European countries.
Meanwhile, today investors are excited over the Senate having passed President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus bill this weekend. The bill was slightly amended, lowering unemployment benefits boosts from $400 to $300. Now it has to get back to the House of Representatives, who will approve of the edited version and finally unlock the funds for Biden’s administration to spend.
The approval of the stimulus bill further contributed to the rise in US Treasuries, which in turn is negatively affecting stock indices. Today the Nasdaq 100, S&P 500, and Dow Jones are all set for losses due to low investor interest in stocks at the moment.
Stock indices are down in China too, in light of last week’s announcement of a lower than expected growth forecast, which signalled to the markets that the government may withdraw some stimulus from its economy to compensate for the increase in borrowing.
In other news, oil prices have continued to grow after OPEC+ agreed not to increase its quotas in April last week. In addition, there was an attack on Saudi oil facilities, though the country reported that production will most likely not be affected. Still, oil managed to climb over $70 per barrel.
