Revenge of the Tiger Loaf
17 August 2020
Finding an edge is harder in an increasingly complex world, but diversity can make for better decisions and huge implications for investing
5 min read
17 Aug 2020
Economic Highlights
Welcome to our Economic Highlights, bringing you market updates from across the UK, US, Europe and China, as well as the FTSE weekly winners and losers.
UK
Despite the headline unemployment rate remaining unchanged, employment fell by 220K in June as uncertainty remains over the UK labour market given the expiry of the government’s furloughed scheme later this year. The UK GDP print for Q2 highlighted confirmed that output fell by -20.4% over the quarter. Monthly GDP data for June was ahead of consensus at 8.7%, however uncertainty remains whether the recent growth spurt starts tapering out.
US
The US CPI print for July was stronger than expected, with both the headline and underlying print increasing by 0.6% month-on-month – suggesting the downward pressures on the US inflation print is over for now. Following a number of strong prints for retail sales, the ex auto & gas figure for July moderated to 1.5% from an upward revised figure of 7.7% in the previous month.
Europe
The German ZEW expectation survey came in stronger than expected at 71.5 against an expected figure of 55.8 –suggesting a further recovery in output. Eurozone Q2 GDP came in at -12.1%, with the earlier lockdown and faster release ensuring a significantly smaller drop of output relative to the UK over the quarter.
Source: FactSet
Source: FactSet