US HOME sales have picked up, Japan’s exports rose in April for a second month and consumer confidence in France and Sweden have improved, buoying hopes that the global financial crisis is easing.
The positive news was tempered, however, by German inflation data showing that the euro zone’s largest economy was experiencing deflation.
While some economists argue that deflationary pressures are building across the 16-nation euro zone, Germany’s Bundesbank says those concerns are unfounded.
The pace of sales of existing homes in the US rose 2.9 per cent in April, the National Association of Realtors said, supporting views that the three-year housing recession was near the bottom. Sales climbed to an annual rate of 4.68 million units from a 4.55 million pace in March, slightly higher than market expectations.
But the US Mortgage Bankers Association had earlier said higher loan rates had hit refinancing, sending demand for mortgage applications to its lowest level since early March.
“I don’t think I would go all the way to optimistic,” said Thomas Kunz of Century 21 Real Estate in Parsippany, New Jersey. “But when I see that the transactions are increasing, that is important.”
Moody’s Investors Service affirmed the triple A credit rating of the US, soothing fears about the country’s creditworthiness that have been creeping up in financial markets.
Japan, the world’s second-largest economy, posted a month-on-month rise in exports due largely to third-ranked China, one of the few major economies seen to be growing in 2009.
Analysts said it was evidence that Beijing’s $585 billion (€420 billion) stimulus package was helping, although China’s central bank offered cautious words on a recovery and urged lenders to extend more credit to help Chinese exporters.
France, Europe’s second-largest economy, posted a small rise in consumer confidence for May, with its index inching to minus 40 from minus 41 a month earlier. In Sweden, the index jumped to minus 11 from minus 21, beating estimates.
“We are in a period of slowing growth, even if the pace of the decline is easing, and therefore hopes of stabilisation exist,” European Central Bank governing council member Christian Noyer told the French Senate’s finance committee.
The more buoyant European outlooks came a day after US consumer confidence rose to an eight-month high. The data cheered stock markets, dented bonds and helped oil hit a 2009 peak.
Yesterday, Asian stocks were up, and European equities finished higher for a third straight session, boosted by financial and retail shares. US stocks indices were mixed after investors digested the home sales report, although the Nasdaq rose on a semiconductor licensing agreement.
Oil topped $63 a barrel, although OPEC ministers are expected to leave the cartel’s output unchanged at todays meeting in Vienna.
Measures including massive spending by governments and central banks are buoying hopes the first quarter was the downturn’s worst, although the US Federal Reserve recently lowered its outlook for the next three years and warned on unemployment.
