Weekly News Summary for June 12-18, 2020

Friday, June 12, 2020: UK Posts Largest Monthly GDP Fall in April

The British economy experienced a record slump in April, with GDP dropping 20.4% in the month as a result of the UK’s strict pandemic lockdown orders.

The figure was a sharper contraction than analysts’ forecasts of 18.4%, while ONS statistician Rob Kent-Smith said the economy is 25% smaller when taking April and March together.

Monday, June 15, 2020: Beijing, Tokyo Registers New Covid-19 Cases

Beijing reported more than 80 cases of the virus in the weekend after seven weeks without registering a new case, leaving nearly a dozen residential districts in lockdown, whereas Tokyo also reported 47 new cases to mark as the capital’s highest since May 5.

Chinese data released on Monday also showed the long-term economic impact of COVID-19, as the country’s retail sales in May remained 2.8% below from last year, lower than the expected fall of 2%, while the 4.4% improvement in industrial production ended up short of the 5.0% increase estimated.

Tuesday, June 16, 2020: US Retail Sales Recover in May as Economy Reopens

US retail sales recovered in May as the world’s largest economy started to reopen and get back up from what might be the shortest and deepest recession in the country’s history.

The government stated on Tuesday that retail sales were up 17.7% in the previous month, reflecting softer restrictions after two months of self-isolation orders to contain the pandemic, although sales remained 6% lower compared to the same month in 2019 due to the impact of the lockdown.

Wednesday, June 17, 2020: US Crude Oil Supplies Added 1.2M Barrels

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed on Wednesday that the supplies of US crude oil added 1.2 million barrels, defeating expectations, while distillate stock shed 1.35 million barrels and gasoline supplies lost 1.67 million barrels.

US commercial crude oil stockpiles, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), have now hit a record high of 539.3 million barrels, which is about 15% higher than the five-year average for this time of the year.

Thursday, June 18, 2020: Global Stocks Slip on New Coronavirus Cases

The Asian and US stock markets edged lower on Thursday, as growing COVID-19 cases in some parts of the US and China weakened the possibility of a quick global economic rebound from the pandemic.

S&P 500 mini futures were down by 1.2%, while MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped as much as 1%, whereas Japan’s Nikkei and China’s bluechip CSI300 shed 1.3% and 0.1% respectively.