Market information Friday January 8th 2016

Yesterday, the price of a barrel of crude WTI oil fell by 5.84% to USD 32.10 during the day, the lowest price since April 2004. At the end of the day, the prices increased to USD 33.20. Last Wednesday, U.S. Government data showed that gasoline supplies increased by 10.6 million barrels last week, the largest increase since 1993.

Yesterday, the American stock markets had a bad day. This was mainly caused by the sharp decline in oil prices and the situation in China. The People’s Bank of China has surprised traders by unexpectedly setting the exchange rate of the yuan 0.5% lower at RMB 6.5646 per US dollar, the lowest level since March 2011. The Nasdaq lost 3.03% and the S&P 2.37%.

Yesterday, Willem Buiter, chief economist of Citigroup, said in an interview with the Financieele Dagbald (FD) that ‘a hard landing of the Chinese economy is getting more likely’. He thinks that actual growth of the Chinese economy is probably around 4%, as opposed to the 7% communicated by the Chinese government. Buiter expects a ‘substantial weakening of growth, or even a recession’.

The 6M Euribor remained unchanged at -0.04%. The 10Y Swap increased by 3 basis points to 0.90%.

In the attachment, today’s market data on money and capital market rates as well as other rates are presented. For more history of these rates or other rates feel free to ask: update@zanders.eu.