Daily Flows
- ADIs are back online this week with more banks looking for funds this week as activity ramps back up.
- Longer-term rates remain more competitive today with 3 month rates around the 5.00% mark. Outliers, such as a domestic A3/BBB- name, will pay 5.10%.
- Westpac is today issuing 3 and 5 year fixed & floating rate notes, with 5 years indicatively pricing at +85 (floating) and 4.70% (fixed). Please reach out should you have interest in bidding on these issues.
The Week Ahead – US Remains Resilient
- We saw a continuation of strong recent data releases to round out last week with US non-farm payroll numbers coming in stronger than expected, rising by 216,000 jobs vs expectations of 175,000. This marked an increase of almost 50,000 jobs on November’s revised print.
- US unemployment remained steady at 3.7% in December with annual wage inflation up 0.2% to 4.1%,
- US CPI data is out on Thursday, with markets expecting an increase of 0.2% MoM and 0.1% YoY.
- Expectations of a Fed rate cut continue to fade on the back of a series of strong recent data prints as the world’s leading economy continues to surprise with its resilience.
- Closer to home, monthly changes in retail sales and building approvals are released tomorrow, with economists expecting a fall of 2% in the latter given recent trends in the January print. Whilst neither will significantly move the market they may provide a basic health check of the Australian economy ahead of the RBA’s first meeting of the year in February.