Today Australia surprised the financial markets with better than expected employment data. The unemployment rate fell to 5.8% in February and the employment change report came in at 88.7K, almost triple the forecast.
In Europe, all eyes will be on the European Medicines Agency, which is going to publish the results of its investigation into the safety of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine today. After at least 15 cases of blood clots in patients who had received the jab shortly before, the majority of the European Union suspended the use of this particular vaccine.
The EU faced some criticism from the EMA and the World Health Organization, who maintain that the vaccine is safe and necessary, even as both organizations conduct their own investigations into the potential link to blood clots. AstraZeneca has maintained that considering the many millions of people that have received the jab, there is no statistical ground to assume the vaccine is causing the blood clots.
The other major highlight of the day is a policy meeting of the Bank of England. The regulator had to decide if the time has come for a change in tone, considering the improving economic conditions in the United Kingdom, largely due to progress in Covid-19 vaccinations. However, the BoE voted unanimously not to change anything at this time.
Speaking of the UK, its otherwise very successful vaccination campaign is set to slow down at present because AstraZeneca has failed to make scheduled deliveries, a problem that persists all over Europe. The EU appears reluctant to share what doses it currently has in store with the UK, even as member states refuse to administer the vaccine at the moment.
Furthermore, the United States published its weekly jobless claims reports later today. Both the initial and continuing claims were slightly higher than expected, showing that the labor market in the US is not recovering at the pace the markets had hoped for.
Otherwise, the US markets are still digesting the results from the Federal Reserve meeting yesterday, where Chairman Powell announced the economy is still far from recovery and that, if the current conditions hold, a hike won’t come before 2024.
The Fed’s policy decision refueled the reflation trade that has marked most of 2021 so far, sending US Treasury bond yields to multi-year highs.
The rise in bond yields is linked to a drop in stock indices, particularly those that are tech-heavy. Today all major US indices will be broadly down, with the exception of Dow Jones, which is more versatile and less susceptible to this trend.
