Summary for the 12th of March 2019


The British prime minister, Theresa May and the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker had yesterday come to an agreement over changes of the Brexit deal. The changes also included not to make the backstop solution (solution which involves the Irish border, and to avoid a physical border between Ireland and Northern Ireland) a permanent solution. The lawmakers at the House of Commons are voting over the changes today (changes got rejected, details in the next post). Last time the House of Commons voted over the changes of Brexit deal, the changes were voted down. Theresa May couldn’t get her own political party to back the changes. May had said that if the Brexit deal didn’t  get approved , the UK might not even be able to leave the EU.

Germany industrial production, month over month, fell by -0.8% from January to February, the market was expecting an increase by 0.5%. The January value got revised up from -0.4% to +0.8%, the underlining trend is still weak. The decline in February was mostly from the automotive industry, which declined by 9% from January. The decline in automotive industry should be seen in context with the strike at a plant in Hungary of German carmaker, Audi. Due to the strike, Audi lost access to central automotive parts, which had led to the temporarily shut down of their factories in Ingolstadt.

Keeping the automotive industry from the numbers, the industrial production rose by 0.5%. This was part thanks to an increase in energy output. Also, the production of consumer goods (durable and none durable) rose.

Indices for 12th of March. Stock markets rose yesterday. This might be due to the news about Nvidia acquiring Mellanox Technologies and talks of a merger between Deutche Bank and Commerzbank. A weaker yen, rising commodity prices and less worries about the global slowdown had led to a positive close in the Asian stock markets.

Dow: +0.8% (11th of March)
S&P 500: +1.5% (11th of March)
Nasdaq: +2 %(11th of March)
Nikkei: +1.9%  (12th of March)
Chinese indices: +1.5% (12th of March)
STOXX Europe 600 Index: -0.06% (12th of March)

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