June E-mini S&Ps this morning are mildly lower due to a -0.55% sell-off in May crude oil, S&P’s cut in its China credit outlook to negative, and a -1.35% sell-off in European stocks. The dollar index is down by another -0.31% this morning due to the continued after-effects of Yellen’s dovish comments on Tuesday. June 10-year T-notes are up +4.5 ticks.
S&P this morning cut its credit rating outlook for China to negative from stable but left the credit rating unchanged at AA-. The move was not much of a surprise since Moody’s several weeks ago made a similar move, but S&P’s today move nevertheless adds to the market’s worries about China.
The Eurozone March CPI report of -0.1% y/y was in line with market expectations and up slightly from Feb’s -0.2% y/y. The Eurozone March core CPI of +1.0% was slightly stronger than market expectations of +0.9% and was up from Feb’s +0.8%.
Japan Feb housing starts rose +7.8% y/y, which was better than market expectations of -2.4% and Jan’s +0.2%.
German Feb retail sales fell -0.4% m/m, which was weaker than market expectations of +0.4%. Jan was revised lower to -0.1% from +0.7%.
German March unemployment was unchanged, which showed a weaker labor market than market expectations for a decline of -6,000. Feb unemployment was revised to -9,000 from -10,000. The German March unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.2%, which was in line with market expectations.
Feb UK M4 money supply rose +0.9% m/m and +2.0% y/y, which was stronger than Jan’s report of +0.1% m/m and +0.8% y/y.
UK Q4 GDP was revised slightly higher to +0.6% q/q and +2.1% y/y from the last estimate of +0.5% q/q and +1.9% y/y.
The UK Q4 current account deficit of -32.7 billion stlg was wider than market expectations of -21.2 billion and Q3’s revised -20.1 billion stlg.