Here's my summary of the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am, including news that Chinese consumers are loosing confidence in their prospects.
But first, sales of new American single-family homes surged in August to their highest level in more than six years. They were a third higher than for the same month a year earlier and +18% above the July level. This is in contrast to sales of existing homes, pointing to a desire by buyers for 'new' over 'used'. Overall, American housing markets are recovering only gradually against a backdrop of relatively high unemployment and sluggish wage growth.
Now the Americans are starting to worry about their rising exchange rate and its consequences for growth. NY Fed boss William Dudley, the only regional Fed chief permanently on the FOMC has voiced these concerns.
Sentiment among Chinese consumers is at the lowest level since the fourth-quarter of 2011, dragged down by a sharp drop in how Chinese are thinking about their job prospects. The Westpac-MNI China consumer sentiment index came in at 113.8 points for the third-quarter of 2014, the worst quarterly outcome since a 112.8 reading almost three years ago. The biggest reason was growing concerns around employment, where the survey fell for a fourth straight month during September to the lowest since February 2009.
Australia’s central bank issued its Financial Stability Review late yesterday and said investors are starting to distort the nation’s housing market and it is discussing possible measures with other regulators to strengthen lending practices.
US Treasury yields rose for the first time in five days as the American Government received the lowest demand for a five-year note auction this year. Investors are betting the Federal Reserve is moving closer to raising interest rates. However longer dated UST 10 yr bond yields slipped again today on Wall Street and are now at 2.54%.
The oil price is still weak but essentially unchanged at just under US$92/barrel and the Brent benchmark just on US$97/barrel. Gold has fallen again, now at US$1,217/oz.
We start today with our currency reasonably stable over the past 24 hours and now just on 80.7 USc, lower against the Aussie at 90.9 AUc, and the TWI is down to 78.2.
If you want to catch up with all the changes yesterday we have an update here.
The easiest place to stay up with today's event risk is by following our Economic Calendar here »
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