On a macroeconomic level, the statistics of the day in the United States have confirmed the thesis of the economic slowdown. Housing starts disappointed in September to 1.256 million, against 1.3 million consensus and 1.36 million in September 2018. Building permits on the other hand stood solid at 1.387 million, against 1.335 million consensus and 1.42 million a year before.
Industrial production fell more than expected, by 0.4% in September compared to August, against -0.2% consensus and + 0.8% for the revised reading (up) of August 2019. Manufacturing output fell 0.5% in September from the previous month, while the consensus was -0.3%.
The manufacturing index of the Philadelphia Fed, deteriorated to 5.6 for the month of October against a consensus of 7.1, and while it was 12 over the previous month. This report indicates a slowdown in the expansion of the manufacturing industry in the region in October.
Finally, the weekly jobless claims for the week ended October 12th came out a little more than expected, at 214,000, against 212,000 consensus and 210,000 a week before.
Friday, markets will monitor a series of publications from China, starting with the GDP of the 3rd quarter (expected to 6% by economists), as well as September’s industrial production and retail sales. All these statistics will make it possible to measure the effects of the trade war on the Chinese economy.
Oil markets remained volatile on Thursday. After a weak start to the session, a barrel of WTI crude ended up 1% to $53.93 on the Nymex (November futures contract), while Brent took 0.82% to $59.91 (December futures contract). It should be noted that this increase was made despite a stronger than expected rise in US crude oil inventories. They climbed 11.3 million barrels, against 2.9 million barrels expected by the consensus, during the week ended October 11.
Gold netted 0.1% at $ 1,495.40 an ounce for the December futures contract on the Comex market.
