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Here are some key updates that as a trader you need to keep a tab on.
- U.S. Govt. shut down: According to Republican lawmaker Richard Shelby and Democratic lawmaker Nita Lowey, U.S. lawmakers have reached an agreement in principle to avert U.S. government shutdown. The last shutdown, which was the longest in U.S. history ended on January 25th, with President Trump signing a 3-week stopgap bill.
- Brexit: Prime Minister Theresa May set to address parliament later in the day where she is expected to ask lawmakers to sit tight in this ‘game of chicken’ as the European Union refuses to grant her any concession over the reached Brexit agreement with controversial Irish backstop. Prime Minister office is reportedly in consultation with the former EU Prominent conservative lawmaker Andrea Leadsom, who was once in line to succeed Prime Minister Cameron said that the parliament is ready to support the Brexit deal if the Irish backstop is not permanent.
- Sino-American trade war: At a rally in Texas, President Trump said that he doesn’t intend to give China a hard time and remains hopeful that a positive deal would come out from the ongoing negotiations in Beijing participated by U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and China’s vice-premier Liu He.
- China slowdown: Bloomberg reported on Monday that China’s lunar holiday spending was the slowest since 2011, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-10/china-lunar-new-year-holiday-retail-catering-sales-up-8-5-cctvChina’s ministry of commerce said on Tuesday that consumption growth in 2019 may continue to slow down and the country would take up measures to boost consumption growth. China’s corporate defaults after reaching a record high of 119.6 bln yuan ($17 bln) in 2018, set to reach a new record in 2019.
- A new economist at ECB: Phillip Lane who is also the Irish central bank governor and the ECB governing council member, was appointed as the ECB's next chief economist to succeed Peter Praet as Mr. Praet’s term ends after May this year. Speaking in Hong Kong, Mr. Lane announced that under his leadership new comprehensive economic forecasts will be released by the central bank in March.
Data from Japan was disappointing,
- Machine tools orders declined 18.8 percent y/y in January according to flash reports, down further from prior -18.3 percent. Total orders fell to just ¥125.4 billion, the weakest level since February 2017.
- Japan’s tertiary industry index down 0.3 percent m/m, same as prior and worse than expected (-0.1 percent m/m)
Data from the U.S. still encouraging,
- NFIB small business optimism index marginally dips to 101.2 vs 103.0 expected and 104.4 prior. The index is still at a much higher level compared to the historical average.
