US data reviewed - Nomura

Analysts at Nomura offered a breakdown of the US events overnight and reviewed them as follows:

Key Quotes:

"Wholesale inventories rose by 0.1% m-o-m in March, in line with market expectations, but the prior month was revised down to -0.6% from -0.5% previously. Wholesale trade sales picked up by 0.7% in March, marking the first increase since September 2015. However, it appears that the nominal increase was attributable to a surge in petroleum sales as sales excluding petroleum declined 0.2%. The pickup in petroleum sales, to a degree, likely reflects higher prices.

Weekly chain store sales: The Redbook Chain Store Sales Index increased by 1.1% yo-y and 2.5% m-o-m. According to the report, Mother’s Day shopping activity helped retail activity in the usual categories such as jewelry, cosmetics, flowers, cards, and small appliances. Memorial Day will be the next major shopping holiday weekend.

GDP tracking update: Relative to the BEA advance estimate, wholesale inventories for March were a little stronger than assumed but the downward revisions to prior months offset the positive impact from the March figure. On balance, our Q1 GDP tracking estimate was unchanged at 0.8%. Note that our Q2 GDP tracking stands at 1.7%."