Market Information Thursday 17 February 2022

Industrial production in the United States grew more strongly in January than previously expected. This was reported by the American Federal Reserve. The index for the production of manufacturing, mining and utilities rose by 1.4%, after a decline of 0.1% in December. Economists expected a rise of 0.5% in January. The capacity utilisation rate rose to 77.6% in January from 76.6% in December, whereas a rate of 76.7% was forecast.

The stocks of crude oil in the United States increased last week. This was reported by the American energy agency EIA on Wednesday. In the week ending on 11 February, crude oil stocks increased by 1.1 million barrels to 411.5 million. Gasoline stocks decreased by 1.3 million barrels to 247.1 million barrels. Fuel oil and diesel stocks decreased by 1.6 million barrels to 120.3 million. The refineries’ capacity utilisation rate was 85.3%, compared to 88.2% a week earlier.

Unemployment in the Netherlands declined further in January. This was shown Thursday by figures from Statistics Netherlands (CBS). Unemployment decreased to 3.6% of the labour force. In December, unemployment was still 3.8%. In the past three months, the number of unemployed decreased by an average of 9,000 per month. This brought the number of unemployed to 354,000 in January 2022, which is 3.6% of the labour force. The number of employed people aged 15 to 75 increased in the same period by an average of 26,000 per month to 9.4 million people. The increase in the number of employed people was particularly large among young people.

The 6M Euribor decreased with 1 basis point to -0.46% compared to previous business day. The 10Y Swap decreased with 4 basis points to 0.82% 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.