Morning Brief – More China COVID-19 Fears

Risk sentiment during Monday’s Asian trading has worsened once again amidst more of China’s covid concerns and deeper contraction in the world’s biggest manufacturing hub.

Although it is a Bank Holiday across many countries, this market is busy reacting to the weekend data releases from the world’s second-largest economy. For the record, China heads into a five-day holiday season.

China’s purchasing managers indices fell deeper into contraction last, particularly the services PMI, which indicates that domestic spending is worsening due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The details of the manufacturing PMI were worse than the headline, with almost all components hitting their lowest since COVID lows in February 2020. Chinese activity has slowed, especially in the services sector in the wake of widespread lockdowns.

The S&P 500, Nasdaq, DJIA, and RUSSELL 2000 futures are down, although the same amount in China. Asian regional indices except for China are in the red, led by steep losses in New Zealand’s stocks. It should be noted that Chinese markets are closed today in observance of Labour Day.

Chinese ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, according to data, is the worst since Wuhan. While Shanghai city is set to ease the lockdown restrictions amid fewer than 10,000 cases reported for the second straight day on Monday, Beijing tightens curbs, in adherence to the government’s zero-covid policy.

Beijing announced that it will ban all restaurants dining and ordered residents to provide proof of a negative covid test to enter public venues, which will further hit the economy.

In reaction to the bearish market sentiment, the US dollar index has started to strengthen again, with the EURUSD pair testing the 1.0500 level again. The euro is notably off its low of close to 1.0400 though.

We now see a raft of PMI data being released across Europe today. A weak number could further dampen the euro. The German PMI will be watching the closest.

Gold is marginally lower this morning, with the yellow metal holding under $1,900, while silver is worst affected and continues to slump around $22.50.

Cryptos have popped this morning after a dire weekend. The BTCUSD pair is trading back towards the $39,000 resistance level after falling from the $37,400 region over the weekend.