Market Update

The business activity in Canada’s manufacturing sector continued to expand at a robust pace in March with the IHS Markit Manufacturing PMI rising to 58.5 from 54.8 in February.

Planned job cuts in the US-based employers dropped to 30,603 in March from 34,531 in February, Challenger Gray & Christmas announced in its latest Job Cut Report on Thursday. This reading represented an 86% decline from the 222,288 job cuts announced in the same month last year when businesses were …

There were 719,000 initial claims for unemployment benefits in the US during the week ending March 27, the data published by the US Department of Labor (DOL) revealed on Thursday. This reading followed the previous print of 658,000 (revised from 684,000) and came in worse than the market expectation of …

Copper fell to its lowest level in six weeks below $4 a pound, weighed by worries about demand from consuming China as well as supply disruptions after the Caixin survey showed that Chinese manufacturing activity in March expanded unexpectedly at the slowest pace in nearly a year. Copper prices fell …

The monthly growth of factory activities in the euro area increased at the fastest pace in the history of an important survey of companies extending to nearly 24 years last month, but disruptions in supply chains and renewed general isolation measures in the region may curb activity soon. With Europe …

The UK manufacturing sector activity quickened its pace of expansion in the month of March, the final report from IHS Markit confirmed on Thursday. The seasonally adjusted IHS Markit/CIPS UK Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) was revised higher to 58.9 in March versus 57.9 expected and 57.9 first readout.

Sources in OPEC + told Reuters that the group will discuss two main options for oil policy in May and after that, including an extension of existing cuts and a gradual increase in production. Two sources said the increase would not exceed 0.5 million barrels per day.

French Health Minister Olivier Ferrand told Radio France Inter that the country could reach the peak of the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic within 7 to 10 days after President Emmanuel Macron announced on Wednesday new restrictions to combat the pandemic. Macron ordered the imposition of the third general …

Oil prices rose on Thursday, April 1, to offset some of the losses incurred in the previous session, as hopes grew that OPEC and its allies, who will meet later today, will decide to continue curbing production in the face of a new rise in Covid-19 infections in some areas. …

Gold rose again Thursday, April 1, from a three-week low it reached in the previous session, as the US dollar and Treasury yields declined, while President Joe Biden’s plan of more than $2 trillion for jobs provided further support for the yellow metal’s appeal as a hedge against inflation. And …