Here's my summary of the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am, including news US employment data surprised on the upside over the weekend.
American employers stepped on the accelerator, adding 236,000 jobs in February, hiring briskly enough to bolster the recovery and possibly overcome the Federal budget cutbacks, but likely not enough to prompt the Fed to turn off its easy-money policies. The US dollar rose against most other currencies on the news.
In Europe, Fitch cut Italy's credit rating one notch to BBB+ from A- as the country stumbles in its political gridlock.
In Spain things are going a bit better; Spanish government bond prices rose for a fourth week as borrowing costs dropped at Spain’s debt sale and ECB President Draghi said the region’s economy will improve this year.
Chinese exports rose more than expected in February, adding to optimism over a recovery in its economy. Shipments jumped 21.8% from a year earlier, boosted by strong demand from the US and South East Asia. Most analysts had expected a 15% rise.
Still, it has been the weakest start to a year for China since 2009, and there are suggestions that inflation may become a problem.
According to a report in the Australian Financial Review, the Reserve Bank of Australia’s computer networks have been repeatedly and successfully hacked in a series of cyber-attacks to infiltrate sensitive internal information.
RBA officials disclosed that the central bank had been infiltrated by a Chinese-developed malware spy program.
The kiwi dollar starts the week slightly lower against most currencies at 82.1 USc mainly due to those good US jobs numbers, at 80.3 AUc, and the TWI is at 75.9.
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