Beijing overlooks climate goals to save economy now

<p>Kia ora,</p><p>Welcome to Friday's Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect New Zealand.</p><p>I'm David Chaston and this is the International edition from Interest.co.nz.</p><p>Today we lead with news markets are in a holding pattern today ahead of tomorrow's US non-farm payrolls report.</p><p>US <a href="https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/OPA/newsreleases/ui-claims/20211455.pdf" target="_blank"><strong>jobless claims data</strong></a> came in pretty much as expected at 324,000 but this was lower than the prior week. And the total number of people on job support benefits fell to under 2.9 mln which was a substantial drop. Tomorrow we get the non-farm payrolls report and the expected July job gains are +870,000. A lot hangs on this level with recent evidence suggesting this may be an overly high expectation.</p><p>American vehicle sales in July ran at the annual rate of <a href="http://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/total-vehicle-sales" target="_blank"><strong>14.8 mln rate</strong></a> which was a drop from a 15.2 mln rate in June. This is now a much smaller car market than what we see in China where the annual sales rate runs at <a href="http://tradingeconomics.com/china/total-vehicle-sales" target="_blank"><strong>over 20 mln</strong></a>.</p><p>Meanwhile, the Biden Administration and US carmakers <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/08/05/statements-on-the-biden-administrations-steps-to-strengthen-american-leadership-on-clean-cars-and-trucks/" target="_blank"><strong>seem set to announce</strong></a> that half of all cars and light trucks sold there by 2030 would be electric vehicles under voluntary targets. This caps a very fast shift to EVs across the world.</p><p>And in another regulatory change, the US SEC is getting ready to regulate crypto assets in the same way as stocks, bonds and commodity-related trading instruments.</p><p>Both the US and Canada released June goods and services trade data overnight. The <a href="https:/