Financial markets had a mixed session on Wednesday. The US Treasury curve flattened, with short term yields rising due to stronger than expected data: initial jobless claims came in below expectations, and durable goods orders (excluding non-defense and aviation goods) for September posted a positive surprise.
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Financial markets had a subdued session on Thursday, with U.S. markets closed for Thanksgiving. In the euro area, sovereign yields edged slightly higher. Minutes from the latest ECB meeting confirmed a cautious stance on rates, though diverging views on inflation risks keep the door open for future cuts.
Friday's session was shorter in the US as markets closed at noon due to Thanksgiving's holidays. Treasury yields rose slightly and US stocks edged higher, with S&P 500 registering the largest gains in a 4-day stretch since May amid high expectations that the Fed will cut rates next week. The dollar continued to depreciate against its peers.
Financial markets started the week with a subdued risk appetite. Sovereign bond yields rose across the board in developed markets. The sold off started in Japan, where it seems increasingly likely that the BoJ could rise rates in December. In both Europe and the US, November ISM and PMI data showed protracted weakness in manufacturing.
US Treasury yields ended yesterday's session mostly flat after the large sell-off they suffered on Monday. The market-implied probability of a Fed rate cut next week continued to stand close to 100%. The Japanese 2Y yield topped 1% early this week, its highest value since 2008, on continued expectations of a rate hike in two weeks.
US Treasury yields dropped along the curve after the ADP survey showed an unexpected decrease of private payrolls in November, suggesting further weakness of the job market and consolidating views on a rate cut by the Fed next week. In consequence, the dollar depreciated against all its main peers.
Investors traded cautiously as they positioned themselves ahead of the Federal Reserve meeting next week. US weekly unemployment benefit claims fell to a three-year low, casting some doubts over the Fed's willingess to lower rates. In this context, US treasury yields rose, equities were mostly flat, and the dollar edged higher against most peers.
Investors kicked off the week on a cautious note, with attention set on upcoming monetary policy decisions. U.S. Treasury yields edged higher ahead of Wednesday’s Federal Reserve meeting, where a rate cut is widely expected (market-implied odds are near 100%) though uncertainty persists around the Fed’s forward path.
Investors traded cautiously ahead of today’s Fed meeting. Yesterday’s JOLTS report showed US job openings increased in October, indicating that the labor market isn't weakening abruptly and raising the risk that the Fed may strike a hawkish tone despite the widely expected rate cut later today. In response, Treasury yields edged higher and the dollar strengthened.
As expected, the Federal Reserve lowered the federal funds rate by 25bp to 3.50%–3.75%. Following the announcement, Treasury yields fell, U.S. equities advanced, and the dollar weakened, leaving EUR/USD trading near 1.17. After three consecutive rate cuts, the Fed signaled it will likely pause to assess how the economy evolves.
Financial markets continued to digest the Federal Reserve’s decision to cut interest rates. Sovereign bond yields edged lower in the euro area and were stable in the U.S., while the dollar extended its recent weakening trend, leaving EUR/USD trading near 1.175. Futures markets continued to price in two rate cuts for next year, despite a seemingly divided FOMC.
COVID-19 is having a huge impact on economic activity in Spain and, in particular, on the tourism industry. At CaixaBank Research we expect GDP to fall by between 13% and 15% in 2020, not returning to its pre-crisis levels until 2023. The outlook in 2020 is even grimmer for Spain's tourism industry as it is one of the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of the agrifood sector as a mainstay of the Spanish economy. During the months of lockdown, the entire food chain (which includes farmers, breeders, fishermen, cooperatives and the food industry, wholesalers, retailers, distributors and logistics operators) had to adapt quickly to secure the population's food supply. In retrospect, it is only fair to acknowledge the excellent response by the whole sector in tackling this challenge.
Activity in Spain’s real estate market is recovering from its extraordinary slump during the first lockdown. In Q3 2020, house sales and new building permits recovered much of the ground lost, a positive trend we expect to consolidate in 2021. Moreover, the impact of the crisis on house prices has been relatively moderate so far, although we expect these will continue to adjust in the latter part of 2020 and the first half of 2021. In particular, CaixaBank Research’s new house price forecasting models at the level of province, based on large amounts of information (big data) and applying machine learning techniques, predict that house prices will fall in 7 out of 10 Spanish provinces in 2021 and grow very moderately in the rest.
The Fed held its benchmark short-term interest rate and said it will continue to buy $80 billion in Treasury securities and $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities each month. Policymakers now see the first rate increase coming in 2023 instead of 2024.
Investors are now debating when the Fed is likely to start trimming its monthly bond purchases, while the Bank of Japan announced it will unveil a new tool to support efforts to address climate change.
The retail trade is one of the Spanish economy’s main service sectors. The sector as a whole has shown itself to be much more resilient than other services, posting a much smaller reduction in activity than the slump observed in the Spanish economy as a whole. Part of this commendable resilience comes from retail’s extraordinary ability to adapt to online sales channels, speeding up a trend that had already been taking hold for years and which we quantify in this report based on internal CaixaBank data. In 2021, the outlook for retail is one of recovery thanks to progress in the vaccination campaign, which will enable a gradual but rapid lifting of restrictions in Q2 2021 on trade and movement, including international.
Last Friday, investors' sentiment worsened amid rising COVID-19 cases, now more contagious with the Delta variant.
2020 will go down in history as the year of COVID but it will also be remembered that, faced by a very difficult situation, the response provided by the food chain was extraordinary, guaranteeing an uninterrupted supply to all Spanish households. A year and a half later, the primary sector still looks remarkably dynamic, although the exceptional growth rates posted during the most critical months of the pandemic have now been left behind.
Monthly analysis of Spain’s economic and financial outlook and its long-term prospects.