Kia ora,

Welcome to Friday’s Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand.

I'm David Chaston and this is the international edition from Interest.co.nz.

Today we lead with news Monday's equity dump is now a fading memory.

First up, the latest signals from the US labour market are that there is no rising stress. Initial jobless claims came in less than expected at 203,000 and there are now 1.9 mln people on these benefits. Both are lower than last week and -10% lower than the same week a year ago.

This was data financial markets noticed today. Along with confirmation that mortgage interest rates are falling.

It is the summer driving season in the US, so petrol prices are important there too. And they are lowish, for them, down almost -10% from year-ago levels. In some places they are under US$3/gal (NZ$1.32/L) at the pump.

US wholesale inventories were up marginally (+0.1%) in June from a year ago. However the steady rises recently have ticked up the inventory-to-sales ratio recently, although it is still lower than year-ago levels.

And there was a well-supported UST 30yr bond auction earlier today and that delivered a median yield of 4.23%, lower than the 4.33% yield at the equivalent event a month ago.

In India and as expected, their central bank's monetary policy review brought no change to their 6.5% policy rate. It has been held at that level since February 2023.

Taiwanese exports held steady at about +US$40 bln in July. But that was 'only' +3.1% higher than the same month a year ago. However it comes on top of a steady expansion since November 2023.

Later today, China will release its July CPI inflation data and it is expected to remain very low (+0.3% year-on-year). Their PPI is again expected to report deflation.

Global shipping freight rates for containerised cargoes slipped marginally again last week, down -3% from the prior week. But they remain three times higher than year-ago levels. Bulk cargo freight rates were unchanged from the prior week, up +50% from the same week a year ago (although that year-ago level was a bit of a low point).

We have noted low steel prices recently. But we should also note than both wheat and soybean prices are also low, now down near five year lows. If there is food stress it is not because the cost of basics are high.

The UST 10yr yield is now at just on 4.00% and up another +3 bps from yesterday. 

The price of gold will start today virtually up +UAS$31 from yesterday at US$2423/oz.

Oil prices are +US$1 USc firmer at just over US$75.50/bbl in the US while the international Brent price is just on US$79/bbl.

The Kiwi dollar starts today little-changed from this time yesterday at just over 60 USc. Against the Aussie we are back down almost -¾c at 91.1 AUc. Against the euro we are up +10 bps at 55 euro cents. That all means our TWI-5 starts today at 68.7 and down -20 bps.

The bitcoin price starts today at US$59,562 and up +6.5% from where we left it yesterday. Volatility over the past 24 hours has been very high at +/- 4.8%.

You can find links to the articles mentioned today in our show notes.

You can get more news affecting the economy in New Zealand from interest.co.nz.

Kia ora. I'm David Chaston. And we will do this again on Monday.