Good morning and happy Monday to you!
This is the daily morning update from NDTV Profit and I'm Alex Mathew. Over the next few minutes, we'll bring you up to speed with everything you need to know to start the new week ahead of the curve.
It's going to be a busy week on the macro-economic front. You will see markets globally take cues from triggers like retail inflation data in the US and China, as well as economic growth in the US, Japan and UK. The data in the US takes on significance ahead of the next meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee next week. There is currently no clear expectation on whether the Fed will choose to cut rates again in the last policy meeting of the year.
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What has helped temper expectations is the seeming resilience in the jobs market in the US. It returned to health last month, after an October that was affected by severe storms and worker strikes. Nonfarm payrolls increased 227,000 last month, following an upwardly revised 36,000 gain in October, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics figures released on Friday.
The unemployment rate edged higher and wages rose by more than forecast.
Syria Civil War
In major international news over the weekend, on Sunday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fled the country as rebels seized Damascus. Celebrations erupted across Syria, with crowds declaring the city free and toppling statues of Assad's father. The rebels, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, celebrated the collapse of Assad's rule after more than 50 years of Baath Party governance, according to reports.
Assad and his family were reported to have reached Moscow after Russia gave them asylum.
Rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani of the HTS group, which led the uprising said it was “a victory for the entire Muslim nation” and represented a “new page for the region” to a crowd gathered at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, according to a report by the Indian Express. The BBC reported that he thanked the people who died in the civil war, which broke out in Syria in 2011, saying Assad had spread sectarianism and corruption.
He further said that Syria had been “abandoned as a playground for Iranian ambitions” under Assad, but now everyone can breathe freely.
As of this morning, despite major geopolitical undercurrents, Brent crude was trading at just over $71 to the barrel. Speaking of oil, Bloomberg has reported that Saudi Arabia is cutting oil prices for buyers in Asia by more than expected, after OPEC+ further delayed an output revival. That highlights the current weakness in demand. Saudi Aramco will sell its main Arab Light crude grade at a premium of 90 cents a barrel to the regional benchmark in January. That compares with $1.70 for this month. The company was expected to lower the premium by slightly less, to $1, according to a survey of traders and refiners.
RBI MPC Meet, Paytm Stake Sale
Back home, the newest retail inflation print will be out this week. It's an important data point to track soon after the Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Committee voted to keep the policy interest rates unchanged but decided to increase banking system liquidity through a cut in the cash reserve ratio for banks.
In corporate news, Paytm is set to sell its 5.4% stake in Japan's digital payments company PayPay to SoftBank for $280 million or around Rs 2,364 crore. The transaction is expected to be closed this month. The divestment by Paytm is part of its strategy to offload non-core assets, and focus on its core businesses, as it recovers from the impact of RBI restrictions on its payments bank business.
Godrej Consumer Products expects only “flattish” underlying volume growth and mid-single-digit sales growth in the domestic market in the December quarter. It has said this is because of the impact of an increase in soap prices and unseasonal rainfall slowing down sales of the home insecticides segment.
In international markets, it's a mixed start to trade in the Asia Pacific region. The Nikkei 225 in Japan has started with gains of about 0.2%, while the Australian benchmark was lower. The Kospi in South Korea continues to be weighed down by political strife and was lower by 1.5% last I checked.
For the list of stocks that could move in trade on the back of news flow, do check out Stocks To Watch.
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