U.S. government debt prices were higher Thursday morning as traders looked ahead to new unemployment data.
At around 1:30 a.m. ET, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note dropped to 0.5428% and the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond fell to 1.2161%. Yields move inversely to prices.
· Bank of England makes no changes to stimulus push
The Bank of England said on Thursday it was keeping its benchmark interest rate at 0.1%.
The BoE also left unchanged the size of its bond-buying programme at 745 billion pounds ($978 billion)
A Reuters poll of economists had pointed no change in either of the BoE’s two main stimulus tools.
· UK housing starts this year could be down 40% due to COVID: minister
The number of new housing starts in the United Kingdom could be down as much as 40% this year because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, British Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said on Thursday.
“As a result of the pandemic, the number of starts this year will be well down on 240,000, it’s difficult to know at the moment, but it could be as much as 30 or 40% less than that,” Jenrick told Sky News.
“We’ll have to see how quickly the economy can bounce back. This year and next year will be very challenging for the industry,” said Jenrick, who was speaking as the government outlined plans to reform Britain’s planning regime to speed up homebuilding.
· German industrial orders surge in fresh sign of recovery
Orders for German-made goods rose sharply in June in the latest sign that Europe’s largest economy is starting to shrug off the effects of months of lockdown, but volumes were still far below pre-pandemic levels, according to Statistics Office data.
Orders rose an adjusted 27.9% compared to the previous month, more than double the 10.4% expansion recorded in May, and well ahead of economists’ expectations. Orders were still 11.3% below the level of February, the last pre-crisis month though.
Domestic orders grew 35.3%, outpacing orders from abroad which expanded by 22%. The recovery in automotive orders was particularly strong, with orders rising 66.5%, though this still left them 12.2% short of February’s level.
· Human trials of coronavirus vaccine set to begin in Indonesia
Human trials on a potential coronavirus vaccine are due to start in Indonesia next week as part of a collaboration between state-owned pharmaceutical company Bio Farma and China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd, a senior researcher said.
The launch of the vaccine trial comes as Indonesia has struggled to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, with a consistently escalating number of cases.
The phase 3 clinical trial is set to begin on Aug. 11 and will involve 1,620 volunteers aged between 18 and 59, Professor Kusnandi Rusmil, head researcher at Bandung’s Padjadjaran University, told reporters.
Half of the participants will receive the vaccine over a six-month period, while the rest will receive a placebo, he said, noting 800 volunteers had been signed up so far.
· Tourism-reliant Thailand shelves 'travel bubble' plan as Asia virus cases rise
Thailand has delayed plans for a “travel bubble” agreement with select countries as new daily coronavirus cases rise in parts of Asia, putting pressure on its vital tourism industry and complicating efforts to revive its battered economy.
Thailand first proposed the idea in June to allow movement between select countries that have low infection numbers, without the need for travellers to undergo quarantine.
But that has been shelved, officials said, amid second and third waves in East Asian countries that previously had their outbreaks under control.
“We are delaying discussion of travel bubble arrangements for now given the outbreak situation in other countries,” Thailand’s coronavirus taskforce spokesman, Taweesin Wisanuyothin, told Reuters.
· Oil prices mixed on coronavirus concerns derailing fuel demand
Oil prices were mixed on Thursday as the falling U.S. dollar offset some of the concerns that fuel demand could stall because of rising global coronavirus infections.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude <CLc1> futures were down 8 cents, or 0.19%, to $42.11 a barrel by 0710 GMT while Brent crude <LCOc1> futures rose 20 cents, or 0.44%, to $45.37 a barrel from an intraday low of $45.10.
Reference: CNBC, Reuters, Kitco
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