Daily update
Daily update
- The US Senate has passed legislation defunding parts of Gen Z, with a ban on TikTok being allowed in US app stores unless the Chinese owner sells within 270 days. This potentially removes the economic activity generated by US content creators (influencers reportedly have an average income of over USD120,000—albeit with a very uneven income distribution). This economic activity may be underreported in official data, but it still takes place.
- The ban may be spun as economic nationalism. US Senator Warner focused on security concerns, but the evidence has not been published. Meanwhile, the EU is accusing China of economic nationalism, with investigations into China’s medical device market and suggestions of China favoring domestic suppliers.
- US March durable goods orders data is due. This is a volatile series, with a very wide forecast range for the headline; so, presenting the outcome as being above or below consensus is not especially helpful. Artificial intelligence-related investment is less visible in these numbers (as being more dependent on imported capital equipment).
- The German ifo business sentiment survey is due, as is the UK’s CBI business sentiment survey. There was lots of noise around sentiment polls yesterday, which may say more about the quietness of the data calendar than anything else.
