Biden’s ‘silicon road’ infrastructure plan was also released. A trimmed spend of roughly $2tln, already down from the whisper number of nearer 3, hinting at the difficulty that this will have passing congress – even within the Democrats. With much wrangling ahead, as well as the planned spend occurring over a leisurely 8 years, markets were relatively disinterested in the announcement.
A couple of single name banking stocks took a valuation hit on losses related to the equity prime brokerage issues of the week before, but no there was no systemic knock-on effects.
Strong Asian trade data continued. France and Italy increased COVID related lockdown restrictions.
Canada: Manufacturing PMI continued the trend higher at 58.5 (54.8 prev.). Jan monthly GDP was positive at +0.7% MoM (0.5% exp., 0.1% prev.) and -2.3% YoY (-2.6% exp., -3.0% prev.)
USA: The ISM survey was strong across all measures.
Mar Change in Nonfarm Payrolls 916k (660k exp., 379k prev.) and the two-month revision was also positive at +156k. Private Payrolls reiterated this strength and the Mar unemployment rate dropped to an expected 6.0% (6.0% exp., 6.2% prev.) despite a pickup in the participation rate to 61.5% (61.5% exp., 61.4% prev.). The Mar underemployment rate improved, but still has a long way to travel at 10.7% (11.1% prev.)
Eurozone: Survey measures of confidence increased. Mar Core CPI was weak at +0.9% YoY (1.1% exp., 1.1% prev.) which will disappoint the ECB. French Mar consumer confidence ticked higher, but consumer spending was weaker than expected. Mar Harmonized CPI was also weaker at +0.7% MoM (0.8% exp., 0.0% prev.) and +1.4% YoY (1.5% exp., 0.8% prev.) German Mar harmonized CPI was as expected at +0.5% MoM (0.5% exp., 0.6% prev.) and +2.0% YoY (2.0% exp., 1.6% prev.). There was little change in unemployment and, following the European tend, retail sales were weaker at +1.2% MoM (2.0% exp., -4.5% prev.) and -9.0% YoY (-5.0% exp., -8.7% prev.) Italian Mar harmonized CPI +1.8% MoM (2.0% exp., -0.2% prev.) and 0.6% YoY (0.8% exp., 1.0% prev.) Mar Manufacturing PMI was steady but elevated at 59.8 (59.8 exp., 56.9 prev.)
Sweden: Mar economic and consumer sentiment weakened slightly, but manufacturing confidence and Manufacturing PMIs improved.
Japan: The all-important Tankan survey showed an uptick in most measures, with a particularly strong reading for Capex.
Unemployment improved with the Feb jobless rate dropping to 2.9% (3.0% exp., 2.9% prev.). Feb retail sales were strong at +3.1% MoM (0.8% exp., -0.5% prev.) and -1.5% YoY (-2.8% exp., -2.4% prev.) Feb industrial production weakened to -2.1% MoM (-1.3% exp., 4.3% prev.) and -2.6% YoY (-1.8% exp., -5.2% prev.)
Australia: Feb Housing and job vacancy data was strong.
