Dollar Strengthens at Start of Fresh Week

[Sergey Golubev]

Dollar Strengthens at Start of Fresh Week

Global cases of Covid-19 now exceed 4.2 million and have resulted in 284,156 confirmed deaths. A third of the cases have been found in the United States, but the push to reopen the country on a uneven and gradual basis has continuing momentum.

Overnight gains in the dollar amount to 0.8% against the kiwi, 0.6% versus the yen, peso, Aussie dollar and sterling, 0.4% relative to the loonie, 0.3% vis-a-vis the yuan but just 0.1% against the euro and Swiss franc.

Share prices climbed 1.5% in Hong Kong and Taiwan, 1.3% in Australia, 1.1% in Japan and 0.9% in Indonesia but show losses so far of 1.0% in France, 0.4% in Germany and Spain, 0.3% in the U.K., and 0.2% in Switzerland. U.S. stock futures are lower, too.

Ten-year German bund and British gilt yields rose two basis points, while the 10-year Treasury yield remains unchanged at 0.69%.

The price of WTI oil settled back 2.6%, while gold has fallen 0.9%.

Industrial production during March in Italy posted 30-year and record month-on-month and year-on-year plunges of 28.4% and 29.3%.

Ireland’s construction purchasing managers index sank 24.4 index points to +4.5, shattering the previous all-time low reading of 25.7 during the Great Recession.

Dutch consumer sentiment dropped 25 index points to a 79-month low of -27.

In China, which was first to feel the Covid-19 outbreak and first to emerge from such, motor vehicle sales in April were 4.4% greater than a year earlier. Such follows a string of 21 straight declines including March’s 43.3% on year plunge.

Chinese bank lending last month of CNY 1.7 trillion exceeded expectations. M2 money growth accelerated a percentage point to an 11.1% on-year pace.

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