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Despite the fact that the spread of coronavirus continues to affect negatively economic activity, especially transport, tourism and industry both in China and in the Asian region, and gradually begins to cover the whole world, as well stated by Algerian Minister of Energy, stock markets are still performing quite well.
In Russia slowing inflation is apparently faster than predicted. The annual growth rate of consumer prices in January fell to 2.4% (from 3.0% in December 2019), both due to the fact that the effect of increasing VAT was excluded from the calculation and due to the moderate growth rate in January. According to the results of January, annual core inflation fell to 2.7% after 3.1% in December. According to the Bank of Russia, inflation indicators reflecting the most stable processes of price dynamics are near or below 3%. Thus, it should not be a surprise that the Bank of Russia decided to reduce its key rate by 25 bp to 6.00%.
In the case of the USA, things are going even smoother. As expected, Trump acquitted on impeachment charges, ending “threat” to his presidency. In addition to that, the US economy added more jobs than expected in January (+225,000 workplaces). Besides that, wages increased 3,1% in January YoY. It means that the probability of seeing another rate cut any time soon is very low.
On the other side of the bridge, while Boeing continues suffering from new software glitches, upsetting its investors, the U.S. Justice Department told Ford, Honda, BMW and Volkswagen it had closed an antitrust investigation. It is worth reminding that these companies were suspected of setting standards for emissions of combustion products.
Finally, the rollercoaster for Tesla’s shares is worth mentioning. It was a typical pump and dump scheme from crypto markets, but somewhat less manipulated. Tesla first surged after beating revenue and user growth estimates, but after fell almost 20%.
The previous week in the markets
Currency Indices
This week it is recommended to pay attention to inflation data on Thursday and retails sales, as well as consumer sentiment, on Friday. In addition, we are going to know industrial production, capacity utilization for January, together with Univ. of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index for February.
