Major currencies have been broadly stable in the past 24 hours, with the Australian Dollar showing little reaction to the Australian central bank’s well-telegraphed decision to keep interest rates on hold at 1.50%.
In Europe, German retail sales contracted 0.7% in February, for the second month running, which seemingly ties in with the loss of business confidence which Germany has suffered in recent months. These slightly softer numbers are keeping the Euro range-bound against the Dollar and Sterling.
Equities made all the headlines, with the S&P 500 down 2.2% yesterday, despite a timid recovery late in the session. Tech stocks are still leading the way down as the likes of Facebook, Tesla and Amazon have seemingly done little to reassure markets after a spate of negative news. China’s confirmation that it had introduced tariffs on imports of 128 US goods worth $3bn per annum in retaliation for US tariffs on Chinese imports did little to brighten the mood, nor did US data for national factory activity in March. The ISM manufacturing index fell to an admittedly still high of 59.3 from 60.8 in March.
