Thursday 16th April 2020

You’d expect the markets to be primed for a lot of negative economic data, says NAB’s Gavin Friend in today’s podcast. Yet the size of the drops in numbers from the US has had a psychological impact on investors – with massive falls in US industrial and manufacturing production and retail sales. Those numbers are for March, so a bigger impact is expected in April. Oil also continues to weigh on markets, with inventories up further in the US, continuing to push prices lower. There’s also discussion on Australians consumer confidence numbers and widening bond spreads across Europe.