Today the economic calendar is quite full of important releases.
First off, Australia published the Westpac consumer confidence index for September, which is slightly higher than the previous one.
During the Asian market session, China published many economic reports, which were overall quite disappointing for investors. The house price index lowered to 4.2% in August, fixed asset investment and industrial production both failed to meet the forecasts, and retail sales in August were more than three times lower than expected at just 2%.
While it is true that China just underwent another series of lockdowns, the economic slowdown indicated by these reports is still worse than predicted, which is painting a rather pessimistic picture of the global economy.
Future data from China is also likely to be grim, considering some provinces are still in lockdown, while other regions are affected by heavy storms, which are bound to cause disruptions for businesses and factories.
In addition, today Chinese stock indices are also set to experience a setback due to Evergrande Group’s very likely bankruptcy. The company is not going to be able to make the next scheduled payment on its $300 billion debt and will go under very soon.
In Europe, the United Kingdom pleased the markets with some positive news. The inflation rate climbed higher than expected to 3.2% in August, with core inflation also beating the forecast at 3.1%.
In France the inflation rate was 1.9% as expected, while Italy narrowly missed the forecast with a result of 2%.
Meanwhile, the eurozone’s industrial production report for July came in at 7.7%, considerably better than expected.
Furthermore, Inflation data from Canada was also positive, while industrial production reports from the United States met investors’ expectations.
US stock indices today will trade slightly higher after yesterday’s inflation data cooled the prospects of a speedy tapering of asset purchases by the Federal Reserve.
