Thursday, July 15 began with two labor market reports from Australia with very different results. The employment change report for June was lower than expected, missing the forecast, while the unemployment rate for the same month dropped more than anticipated, showing some signs of recovery.
China also delivered a fair share of economic reports today. Among these, the most important one was the GDP growth rate for the second quarter of 2021, which was lower than the forecast, disappointing investors. However, the quarterly GDP growth number was better, and data on retail sales and industrial production also exceeded investors’ expectations.
Overall, the bulk of Chinese data represent a trend we might see all around the world: the economy is recovering from the pandemic, but its current pace of growth is considerably slower than it was projected to be, after kicking off in a promising manner initially.
Like Australia, the United Kingdom also published an employment change update today, which failed to meet the target level. The unemployment rate for May was higher than expected as well.
The United States published its latest jobless claims data today, as usual. Initial jobless claims were exactly 360K as forecasted, while continuing claims dropped to a lower number than expected, which indicates a mild recovery on the US labor market. Nevertheless, the industrial production reading for June was disappointing.
In addition, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell also has to continue his testimony before Congress today, another opportunity to catch a glimpse of what’s going on within the Federal Reserve and what the latest attitudes towards policy tightening are.
US stock indices today will trade with a mixed bias, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 likely making the biggest gains, in part due to hopes that streaming giant Netflix will add computer games to its catalog. The Q2 earnings season is also underway, which is making investors apprehensive about stocks at the moment.
