Here are highlights from May 2018,
Our three most read posts in May 2018
2. Healthcare could soon be the largest expenditure of households in the U.S.
UK house sales and house price growth are slowing but is this time any different?
Several people in the UK didn’t experience the great (property price) crash of 2008. But several other people did. A decade on – do people remember? Here is a sample of prices from London’s financial district – Canary Wharf. And no, we haven’t taken the worst-case example, this is truly representative,
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New car output in the United States is close to a 43-year low
Americans are buying fewer new cars and factories in the U.S. are producing fewer cars. Uber, Lyft and the likes to blame? We will come to that but first output for new cars in the U.S. is close to a 43-year low.
And a chart on spend on new cars,
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The U.S. only charged 1.65% in import tariffs in 2017
We wrote about the average import tariffs or custom duties per country recently. That data set was sourced from the World Trade Organization (WTO) and it showed that the average import tariff or custom duty for the United States is currently 3.48%. We did mention that the WTO number is averaged across all products; the actual tariffs could be different based on the product mix of imports as well as any special trade deals the country may be part of.
In the case of the U.S., the actual import tariff or custom duty was just $38.49 billion or 1.65% of the value of $2.34 trillion in imports in 2017.
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U.S. Personal interest payments hit all time high despite low interest rates
Personal interest payments for households in the United States have hit an all-time high with annualized interest payments now $321 billion, this despite low interest rates currently.
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Average import tariffs or custom duties per country
Here are the average import tariffs or custom duties for each country averaged across all products (data source: the World Trade Organization),
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Weekly Overview: Investors seek safety as bond yields fall; Crude Oil down 5%; Baltic Dry Index down 15%; Bank of England Governor prepared to cut or freeze interest rates; US E-Commerce Retail sales soaring
Investors seek safety
What a difference a week makes, just last week everyone was talking about soaring bond yields. Investors are now seeking safety with developed economies bond yields falling significantly during the week.
Here are some 10-year bond yields, figures in brackets indicate change during the week.
US 2.93% (-15 bps)
UK 1.32% (-21 bps)
Germany 0.41% (-17 bps)
Canada 2.35% (-14 bps)
Switzerland 0.00% (-13 bps)
Netherlands 0.59%% (-15 bps)
Australia 2.79% (-13 bps) Continue reading “Weekly Overview: Investors seek safety as bond yields fall; Crude Oil down 5%; Baltic Dry Index down 15%; Bank of England Governor prepared to cut or freeze interest rates; US E-Commerce Retail sales soaring”
Comparison of house price indices (Halifax, Nationwide, Rightmove, UK House Price Index and LSL) in the UK
We asked the question, Are the British obsessed about house buying and house prices? a couple of months ago.
The British are obsessed about house prices because most of their wealth outside of pensions is invested in property.
Here is a summarized comparison of the different house price indices in the United Kingdom,
Corporate debt is soaring in the U.S. even as corporate bond yields are rising
Corporations (non-financial) in the United States have $6.2 trillion in debt and debt has doubled in the past decade,
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European Union Trade Statistics for January to March (Q1) 2018
Key highlights
- The total trade surplus for the European Union increased from €15.6 bn in Q1 2017 to €19.1 bn in Q1 2018, total exports were €1.34 trillion and total imports were €1.33 trillion
- 10 of the 28 European Union countries had a trade surplus in Q1 2018 and 18 had a trade deficit
- Germany had the largest trade surplus in Q1 2018 at €62.2 bn, Netherlands at €15.8 bn and Ireland at €12.4 bn
- The United Kingdom had the largest trade deficit in Q1 2018 at €41.1 bn, France at €21.2 bn and Spain at €7.9 bn
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