Previous Trading Days Events 30 Jan 2024

Decembers report yesterday for Australias retail sales showed a huge decline surprising the market while annual growth in spending slowed to lows last seen during the COVID19 pandemic lockdowns.

Retail sales decline was reported at 2.7 on a seasonally adjusted basis, after rising 1.6 in November.

Source httpswww.reuters.commarketsaustralianretailsalesslamintoreversedecember20240130

The U.S. consumers are getting more confident about the future as the figures suggest. It increased to a twoyear high in January amid slowing inflation and expectations that the Federal Reserve would start cutting interest rates soon.

The consumer confidence index rose to 114.8 this month, the highest reading since December 2021, from a downwardly revised 108.0 in December.

Januarys increase in consumer confidence likely reflected slower inflation, the anticipation of lower interest rates ahead, and generally favourable employment conditions as companies continue to hoard labour, said Dana Peterson, chief economist at The Conference Board in Washington. The gain was seen across all age groups, but largest for consumers 55 and over.

Source httpswww.reuters.commarketsususconsumerconfidencerisetwoyearhighjanuary20240130

The U.S. economy showed an incredible resilience to rate hikes and recent data from the labour market showed that employment was relatively high at the end of last year. The U.S. job openings report showed that the figure…