Japan will take some time reaching trade balance on a sustainable basis

Sep 17, 2015 05:17 am UTC| Commentary

Japans August exports are expected to have grown by 5.2% yoy (+7.6% yoy in July), while imports likely shrunk by 3.2% yoy during the same month (unchanged from July). As the US economic recovery remains modest and there is...

UK sales probably hurt by bad weather

Sep 17, 2015 05:16 am UTC| Commentary

The underlying trend of consumer demand is strong, supported by a high level of consumer confidence and rapid growth in real disposable income. However, retail sales are highly volatile on a month to month basis. In...

US residential construction activity likely to rise

Sep 17, 2015 04:25 am UTC| Commentary

Consistent with the snapback in US construction hours worked, the number of new housing units started probably climbed by 2.0% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.23 million in August, the strongest activity since...

Intra-Asia trade collapse takes toll on August NODX

Sep 17, 2015 04:17 am UTC| Commentary

Non-oil domestic exports contracted 8.4% y/y in August, weaker than expectations. On a m/m sa basis, exports fell 4.6%, erasing the 2.5% gain in July. The softness was driven by a sharp, 29% y/y contraction in...

Japan trade deficit widens in August on weak exports

Sep 17, 2015 03:30 am UTC| Commentary

Japans trade deficit hit an eight-month high in August, despite continuous declines in imports, as exports growth was the weakest since May. The trade gap expanded from 268.1 billion in July to 569.7 billion last month,...

Asia mimics wall street rally before FOMC; Kiwi drops after GDP data

Sep 17, 2015 02:45 am UTC| Commentary

Asian stocks swung higher after US markets closed with solid gains on Wednesday. Investors now await the much-anticipated Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) statement, which may or may not see US interest rates increased...

UK headline ILO unemployment rate dropped to 5.5% in July

Sep 17, 2015 02:23 am UTC| Commentary

The UK headline ILO unemployment rate dropped to 5.5% in July, against the consensus expectations of a steady rate of 5.6%. Total unemployment dropped by 29k from June and growth in unemployment decelerated by 15k to 10k...