The NFP and the OPEC data & few reasons for pessimism

6 Mac 2020

Friday promises to be an extremely eventful and interesting day. On the one hand, statistics on the US labor market will not let you get bored in the currency and stock markets, and on the other hand, the results of the OPEC meeting will determine the dynamics in the oil market. We will talk about this and much more in today's review.

But let's start traditionally with news about the coronavirus. As the number of cases in the world grows, measures to contain the epidemic are tightened. Italy closes schools and restricts public gatherings. Companies continue to revise their forecasts for financial results. Quite frightening figures were noted by the International Air Transport Association. According to their experts, the industry’s losses from coronavirus may amount to $ 113 billion.

And there are already the first victims of this. Chinese Tourism and Financial Conglomerate HNA Group Co. was taken under state control. That is, in fact, the company ceased to exist as an independent entity. Indicative in this case is the fact that one of the main reasons for the fall of the company was its high debt cut (about 85 billion). The evidence is that this is generally very typical of Chinese companies (overblown debts). HNA Group Co. clearly demonstrated how quickly one of the fastest-growing companies can go bankrupt. In general, there are enough reasons for pessimism.

Realizing the impasse of monetary incentives, more and more countries are using fiscal instruments (mainly increased government spending) as a measure to combat the effects of coronavirus. Asian countries are so far ready to pour in up to $ 40 billion, and the United States - about $ 8.

They are also trying to fight the consequences of coronavirus in OPEC. Today there is an attempt to carry out the following agreement: to withdraw from the market another 1.5 million b/d with a minimum of the end of the second quarter. So far, Russia remains a stumbling block. If she can be persuaded, a very serious reason for price increases will appear in the oil market. So today we will buy oil in the hope that everyone will agree. The deal seems to be quite good, if only because the stops are relatively small (places below 44 or closes on the fact of negative news), but the profits are very ambitious (an increase of up to 57 or even higher for the WTI brand).

The key event of the day for other financial markets will be the publication of statistics on the US labor market. Since the data will be for February, there is a risk of failure in the numbers of NFPs in connection with the coronavirus epidemic. However, the dollar has already lost quite a lot in the foreign exchange market, and the data from ADP came out unexpectedly good, so today we will buy the dollar.