On the first day of February we expect several important fundamental reports. First of all, Germany and Switzerland both published their retail sales reports for December. The latter’s reading of 4.7% went somewhat unnoticed, but Germany’s 1.5% reading heavily disappointed investors.
Next up were PMI reports. Switzerland did well again (59.4 on the manufacturing PMI), but Spain and Italy failed to meet the forecasts, with Spain’s 49.3 result indicating an economic contraction. Furthermore, manufacturing PMIs from Germany and the eurozone as a whole were better than expected.
China’s latest PMI was its worst in about half a year. The manufacturing sector in China is currently negatively affected by the resurgence of Covid-19 in the country where the pandemic first began. China has wasted no time in implementing new lockdowns to contain the virus.
Today there were also some reports on unemployment. The jobless rate was disappointingly high in Italy at 9%. The eurozone-wide unemployment rate for December is 8.3%, which is in line with the forecasts.
The United Kingdom also contributed a positive PMI report, together with mixed data on mortgages. Later in the day we expect PMI data from Canada and the United States.
There is also a lot of commotion on the stock market. It seems that the group of traders that was responsible for pushing GameStop share prices so high over the past few weeks is now moving onto other instruments. The most notable among these for now is silver, which is up more than 10% in value.
Oil industry giants Exxon Mobil and Chevron are also gaining slightly today due to revelations that they considered a merger last year. It didn’t happen, but the announcement indicates that even the biggest of companies are reconsidering their positions in an industry that has turned less and less profitable over the past five to six years.
US stock indices today are in rally mode, thanks to the dust settling over GameStop and the other companies targeted in last week’s short-squeeze. Bear in mind, though, that traders have not completely abandoned GameStop, AMC, and co. yet, and there is still some room for growth in the value of those stocks.
