GLOBAL NEWS:
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday his coronavirus task force would shift its primary focus to reviving U.S. business and social life, while acknowledging that reopening the economy could put more lives at risk. Trump changed his mind after the reaction to his Tuesday announcement showed how popular the task force was, he said. Asked later if Americans will have to accept that reopening will lead to more deaths, Trump told reporters: “You have to be warriors. We can’t keep our country closed down for years and we have to do something. Hopefully that won’t be the case, but it could very well be the case.” Governors have faced mounting pressure to ease stay-at-home orders and mandatory business closures that have ravaged the economy, throwing millions of Americans out of work, even as those measures succeeded in fighting the virus. Public health experts warn of a new surge in cases if reopenings occur without vastly expanded diagnostic screening and a system to trace who has been in contact with newly infected patients so they are also isolated and tested. Citing moves by about 30 states to relax restrictions this month, University of Washington researchers on Monday revised their model to project nearly 135,000 U.S. coronavirus deaths by early August, almost double their previous forecast. The United States is already more than halfway there, with at least 71,000 lives lost to COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, out of 1.2 million-plus Americans known to be infected, according to a Reuters tally. White House guidelines recommend that new case numbers trend downward for 14 days and that wide-scale testing and contact tracing exist before shutdowns are phased out.
China’s exports unexpectedly rose in April for the first time this year, taking some pressure off manufacturers in the world’s second-largest economy after the coronavirus pandemic battered demand and disrupted manufacturing supply chains. April’s better-than-expected outcome followed an improvement in March, but the outlook for China’s exports remains bleaks as the health crisis around the world is sparking fears of a global recession. Slowing global growth and mounting job losses will likely dampen demand for Chinese goods for months to come. Overseas shipments in April rose 3.5% from a year earlier, marking the first positive growth since December last year, customs data showed on Thursday. That compared with a 15.7% drop tipped by a Reuters poll of economists and a 6.6% plunge in March. The sharp fall in China’s exports and imports earlier in the year eased in March as factories resumed production, but analysts expect pressures to persist as the coronavirus crisis shuts down economies around the world. Imports sank 14.2% from a year earlier, the biggest contraction since January 2016 and below market expectations of an 11.2% drop. They had fallen 0.9% the previous month. China’s trade surplus for the period stood at $45.34 billion, compared with an expected $6.35 billion surplus in the poll and a surplus of $19.93 billion in March. With the coronavirus under control domestically, China’s economy has begun to open up again as authorities loosen draconian restrictions including stay-at-home orders.
The safe-haven yen hovered near a seven-week high against the dollar on Thursday as investors limited their exposure to riskier assets amid dire global economic data, rising trade tensions and concerns over the euro zone. The yen last stood at 106.15, after rising to 105.985 per dollar in the previous session, its firmest since mid-March. Against the euro, it traded at 114.66 yen per euro, having hit a 3 1/2-year high of 114.43 overnight. Germany’s highest court on Tuesday gave the European Central Bank three months to justify purchases under its bond-buying programme, or lose the Bundesbank’s participation in one of its main stimulus schemes. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday renewed his aggressive criticism of China, as the Trump administration weighs punitive actions against Beijing over its early handling of the virus outbreak. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he was closely watching to see if China is fulfilling its obligations under a Phase 1 trade deal the two countries signed in January before the coronavirus spread globally. A private business survey on China, where most official lockdowns ended more than two months ago, showed the country’s service sectory activity remained mired in contraction in April as layoffs hit a record and export orders plunged. In a further sign of weak consumption in China, the country’s imports dropped 14.2% from a year ago, a bigger decline than economists’ forecast of 11.2% fall. But exports rose 3.5% despite expectations of 15.7% drop, helping to lift the Chinese yuan and the Australian dollar slightly. The yuan firmed about 0.1% to 7.0959 to the dollar while the Aussie ticked up 0.25% to $0.6420. The euro was little changed at $1.0801 after three straight days of falls so far this week, hit also by the German court decision challenging the country's participation in the European Central Bank's stimulus. The British pound eased a tad on Thursday to $1.2322, touching its lowest level in almost two weeks. The currency has lost 4% so far this month, and 29.7% this year, the worst among major emerging market currencies.
Indian stocks slid on Thursday, with declines led by banks and Hindustan Unilever, as coronavirus cases in the country crossed 50,000 despite a strict weeks-long lockdown. The Nifty was down 0.58% at 9,215.70 by 0400 GMT, while the Sensex fell 0.62% to 31,487.85. The number of coronavirus infections rose to 52,952 in India, up by 3,561 over the previous day, the health ministry said on Thursday. The death toll was up by 89 to 1,783. Shares in Hindustan Unilever fell 4.3% after GlaxoSmithKline began selling $3.45 billion worth of the company’s shares in the open market.In a bright spot, Yes Bank’s shares jumped nearly 10% after the lender reported a surprise profit for the March quarter.
Oil prices steadied on Thursday as data showed China’s crude imports rebounded, but market watchers expect gains to be capped by the glut in supplies as the coronavirus pandemic crushes global fuel demand. Brent crude LCOc1 was up by 3 cents, or 0.1%, to $29.75 a barrel 0341 GMT, after dropping 4% on Wednesday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures CLc1 gained 4 cents, or 0.2%, to 24.03 a barrel, after declining more than 2% in the previous session. Both contracts traded in an out of negative territory through the Asian morning on light trade with some markets on holiday. Oil prices were supported by data showing Chinese crude imports rose last month. Imports climbed to 10.42 million barrels day in April from 9.68 million bpd in March, according to Reuters calculations based on customs data for the first four months of 2020. Overall exports from China also rose against expectations of a sharp drop. While prices have risen since late April as some countries have started easing lockdowns put in place to combat the worst pandemic in a century, oil continues to be pumped into storage, leaving a massive mismatch between demand and supply. U.S. crude inventories were up for a 15th straight week last week, rising by 4.6 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. That was less than analysts had forecast in a Reuters poll, which suggested a 7.8 million-barrel rise, but the gain highlighted once again how much supply is being stored. Distillate inventories also rose sharply. Iraq, OPEC’s second-largest producer after Saudi Arabia, has not yet informed customers of impending restrictions on its oil exports. OPEC and allied producers - a grouping known as OPEC+ - agreed to cut production from May 1 by around 10 million bpd to stabilise prices amid the plunge in demand in economies ravaged by the coronavirus outbreak.