China is slowing down, the US homes sales are growing

Yesterday was notable for the fact that for the first time in an epidemic, the number of new cases in China was lower than in the rest of the world. On the one hand, this indicates a reduction in the epidemic in China, and on the other, the continuation of the deterioration of the situation in the world. Since the situation with the epidemic in China is improving quite rapidly, we can begin to summarize its preliminary results. And although it’s too early to talk about specifics, some estimates can be obtained already here and now.

These are the so-called early response indicators. For example, Bloomberg calculates 8 early response indicators for China. So 5 out of 8 in February decreased. But this is not the worst. The February indicators of business confidence fell to the lowest values in the history of observations. Business can be understood: the sales of new cars and real estate in China fell by more than 90%.

Bloomberg data is also confirmed by a monthly study of the health of small and medium enterprises in China. The results are record low in the history of such studies.

As for the more classical metrics, it is expected that China's GDP growth will decline to the lowest levels since 1990. Goldman Sachs, for example, expects China's GDP growth in the first quarter by only 2.5%.

A sharp slowdown in the economy is frightening not only by the fact of the slowdown but also by the problems that it carries: rising unemployment, increasing bad debts, increasing bankruptcies, falling financial results of companies, decreasing domestic demand, etc.

Speaking of official statistics, the first signals will appear on February 29, when the February PMI for China will be published. As expected, it will fall to the lowest levels since the global financial crisis (while some experts predict even lower values).

Yesterday's data on sales of new homes in the USA looked rather provocative against this background: in January they grew by +7.9% to 764,000 with a forecast of +3.5% to 718,000. However, we will see what will happen there in February, especially in light of the Center’s warning the United States Disease Control and Prevention Regarding the threat of a possible spread of the virus throughout the United States.

In general, the situation continues to be tense and for any positive, whether it is a decrease in the number of patients or the development of a vaccine, there is a negative right there (problems in the economy of China and the world, the spread of the epidemic, sales on stock markets, etc.). Accordingly, we do not see any reason to radically change anything in the trading plan.

So today we are looking for points for buying gold (but we are careful - we buy on the slopes with mandatory stops), we sell oil, we sell EURUSD, we buy GBPUSD, we sell USDJPY with small stops.