Market movers today
We have another quiet day on the data front and instead the market will look for any new political statements in the trade dispute between the US and its major trading partners, the EU and China.
The only real important economic number is the preliminary core capex figures in the US. Overall, business investments have been increasing since summer 2016 but recently, they have stagnated – probably due to lower growth in the manufacturing sector. Figures for May will give us an impression of whether investments are heading higher again.
Selected market news
The latest news in the trade came from Canada yesterday, which is preparing to introduce tariffs and quotas on steel imports. The new measures should prevent global steel producers from dumping excess supply hit by US tariffs on the Canadian market.
S&P yesterday affirmed the US sovereign credit rating of AA+ and kept the outlook on stable. The rating further assumed that long-term fiscal challenges will be addressed over time.
The oil market traded on a series of supply-related stories yesterday. News out of Libya 6 that the militia has taken control of large oil ports threatening exports from Libya 6 initially pushed oil prices higher. Later in the day, Saudi Arabia was said to plan to boost oil output to a record high 10.8mb/d following the OPEC+ deal from last week. The news temporarily eased concerns over the potential supply risk from Libya and sent oil prices back down again before news broke that the US is pressing its allies to cut Iran oil imports to zero by November. If the US succeeds in the latter, it will tighten world oil supply and push prices higher.
In Denmark, the Systemic Risk Council yesterday recommended that the countercyclical buffer rate was kept unchanged at 0.5%. Due to the build-up of economic and financial risks the Council, however, said it expects to issue a recommendation during 2018 to raise the buffer rate by a minimum of 0.5 percentage point.
