Germany's Unemployment At Record Lows; OECD Sees Continuing Decoupling Between US And Europe In H1Economic Data
(RU) Russia Gold & Forex Reserve w/e Mar 23rd: $510.8B v $505.4B prior
(DE) Germany Feb ILO Employment (Seasonally adj): 41.406 v 41.37M prior; Unemployment Rate: 5.7% v 5.7% prior
(UK) Mar Nationwide House Prices M/M: -1.0% v +0.2%e; Y/Y: -0.9% v +0.9%e
(ES) Spain Jan Total Housing Permits M/M: -11.3% v 4.8% prior; Y/Y: -25.0% v -27.9% prior
(ES) Spain Mar Preliminary Consumer Price Index Y/Y: 1.9% v 1.9%e; CPI EU Harmonized Y/Y: % v 1.8%e
(DK) Denmark Feb Unemployment Rate: 4.2% v 4.0% prior; Gross Unemployment Rate: 6.2% v 6.1%e
(HU) Hungary Feb Unemployment Rate: 11.6% v 11.4%e
(SE) Sweden Feb Retail Sales M/M: 1.2% v 0.1%e; Y/Y: 3.4% v 1.6%e v 1.5% prior
(ZA) South Africa Feb PPI M/M 0.9% v 0.6%e; Y/Y: 8.3% v 8.1%e
(DE) Germany Mar Unemployment Change: -18K v -10Ke; Unemployment Rate: 6.7% v 6.8%e
(NO) Norway Mar Unemployment Rate: 2.6% v 2.6%e
(UK) Feb Net Consumer Credit: £0.4B v £0.2Be; Net Lending: £1.6B v £1.4Be
(UK) Feb Mortgage Approvals: 49.0K v 57.2Ke
(UK) Feb M4 Money Supply M/M: -1.9% v 1.5% prior; Y/Y: -3.4% v -1.8% prior; M4 Ex IOFCs 3M Annualized: 2.5% v 3.9% prior
(UK) Jan Index of Services M/M: 0.2% v 0.2%e; 3M/3M: 0.3% v 0.3%e
(HK) Hong Kong Feb Retail Sales Value Y/Y: 15.7% v 23.7%e; Retail Sales Volume Y/Y: 10.1% v 16.6%e
(EU) Euro Zone Mar Business Climate Indicator: -0.30 v -0.16e; Consumer Confidence: -19.1 v -19.0e; Economic Confidence: 94.4 v 94.5e; Industrial Confidence: -7.2 v -5.8e; Services Confidence: -0.3 v -0.8e
(PT) Portugal Mar Consumer Confidence: -54.5 v -55.8 prior; Economic Climate Indicator: -4.8 v -4.9 prior
(BE) Belgium Mar CPI M/M: 0.2 v 0.6% prior; Y/Y: 3.4 v 3.7% prior
Fixed Income
(DK) Denmark sells total DKK11.9B in 2-month, 5-month and 9-month Bills
(IT) Italy Debt Agency (Tesoro) sold total €5.75B vs. €4.0-5.75B indicated range in 2017 and 2022 BTP Bonds
Sold €2.5B vs. €2.5Bein 4.75% May 2017 BTP; Avg Yield 4.18% v 4.19% prior; Bid-to-cover: 1.65x v 1.45 x prior
Sold €3.25B vs. €3.25Be in 5.50% Sept 2022 BTP; Avg Yield 5.24% v 5.50% prior; Bid-to-cover: 1.65x v 1.40x prior
Sold €2.25B vs. €2.5Be in Floating 2017 CCeu; avg yield 4.60%
(HU) Hungary Debt Agency (AKK) sold HUF45B in 12-Month Bills; avg yield 7.56% v 7.47% prior; Bid-to-cover: 1.50x v 1.95x prior
Notes/Observations
EU Leaders set to decide on size of rescue fund on Friday.
Moody's take action on seven Portuguese banks.
Spain Fin Min de Guindos: Q1 GDP would be just as bad as Q4 number but not worse.
S&P sovereign analyst Kraemer: Greece may need to undertake another debt restructuring.
Italian PM Monti: Cannot rule out further debt crisis.
German unemployment at record low levels.
OECD remains cautious on global recovery, Europe to decouple from US in H1.
Equities
FTSE 100 -0.70% at 5765, DAX -0.80% at 6944, CAC-40 -0.50% at 3412, IBEX-35 -0.10% at 7969, FTSE MIB -0.70% at 16,332, SMI -0.50% at 6217.
European shares traded lower taking cue from losses in the US and Asian markets as investors continue to worry about economic growth and Eurozone crisis. However, German unemployment numbers came better than expected.
Swedish retailer H&M [HMB.SE] dropped after reporting Q1 figures that were lower than expectations. Banca Monte Paschi di Sienna [BMPS.IT] also dropped after reporting a loss compared to last year's profit. Bank said the earnings were hit by writedowns.