Today the economic calendar is relatively busy. The day started with inflation rate reports from New Zealand, which exceeded investors’ expectations. Moreover, retail sales from Australia were also better than anticipated.
Things were a bit worse in the United Kingdom, where YoY core inflation in March met the forecast exactly, but the overall inflation rate was only 0.7%, narrowly missing the target. The markets have had very high hopes for the UK, considering it was ahead of most countries in its vaccination campaign and was able to end lockdowns sooner than other countries.
Canada is on the radar today with several inflation rate reports of its own later, as well as a monetary policy meeting of the Bank of Canada. The interest rate is expected to stay unchanged at 0.25%.
The stock market today will continue to be dragged down by pessimism about the coronavirus pandemic.
Although most developed economies seem to be overcoming Covid-19, India’s large importance to the global economy is becoming prominent in how strongly the markets have been affected by the heavy coronavirus outbreak there.
India is doing everything possible to ramp up its vaccination campaign at the moment, but supply remains an issue, even for the biggest manufacturer of vaccines worldwide.
Thus, all major US stock indices will trade lower today. In addition, the stock market was also stirred a bit by lower than expected subscribers for Netflix in the first quarter of 2021. The company’s revenue increased but the disappointing number of new subscribers dragged its share price down.
Companies to keep an eye on today due to the publication of earnings reports include Verizon, among others. In addition, major football club stocks are also quite shaken after a decision by some of Europe’s most elite clubs to form a league of their own fell apart too soon after being announced.
