Market Information Monday 8 June 2020

Unemployment in the United States fell unexpectedly to 13.3% in May. Analysts were expecting a further rise to around 20%. The number of new jobs rose by 2.5 million, according to the jobs report published by the US government on Friday. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, which collects the data, states that a large group of people who do not work as a result of the corona crisis is counted as ‘working but absent from work’. Had they been counted as temporarily unemployed, then the unemployment rate would have been 3 percentage points higher.

The Japanese economy has officially entered a recession for the first time in 4.5 years. The third-largest economy in the world recorded a decline of 2.2 percent in the first quarter. In the period October through December, gross domestic product declined by 7.2 percent, due to the effects of amongst others the trade conflict between China and the United States. The figure for the period January to March was adjusted positively because business investment turned out better than expected. An earlier estimate assumed a contraction of 3.4 percent.

China’s exports declined 3.3 percent year-on-year in May, following an unexpected 3.5 percent increase in April. Exports decreased at a lower rate than economists expected, helped by higher foreign sales of medical equipment such as face masks. Chinese imports declined by 16.7 percent, which is even a  higher decline than a month earlier. This was partly due to the lower prices of raw materials such as oil and gas and also soybeans. It is the sharpest drop in imports since early 2016. The Chinese trade surplus, reported in dollars, rose to a record level of 62.9 billion dollar.

The 6M Euribor decreased with 1 basis point to -0.18% compared to previous business day. The 10Y Swap increased with 2 basis points to -0.01% compared to previous business day.

In the attachment, today’s market data on money and capital market rates as well as other rates are presented.