Energy prices have global economy in its grip

<p>Kia ora,</p><p>Welcome to Thursday'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 energy prices are roiling markets everywhere.</p><p>But first in the US, the <a href="https://adpemploymentreport.com/2021/September/NER/NER-September-2021.aspx" target="_blank"><strong>ADP employment report</strong></a> was positive, coming in better than expected with an +568,000 increase in jobs for September and suggesting that the upcoming US non-farm payrolls report will be a reasonable one. There were good gains in every sector in the ADP report. Analysts expect the non-farm payrolls report to show a rise of only +473,000 however.</p><p>But there were challenging data in the American home loans sector. <a href="https://www.mba.org/2021-press-releases/october/mortgage-applications-decrease-in-latest-mba-weekly-survey" target="_blank"><strong>Applications fell sharply</strong></a> last week, and <a href="http://www.freddiemac.com/pmms/" target="_blank"><strong>interest rates rose sharply</strong></a> which probably explains the applications retreat.</p><p>In Asia, fuel prices are soaring, and not just in China. But <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/china-turns-stranded-australian-coal-combat-power-crunch-trade-2021-10-05/" target="_blank"><strong>China is relenting</strong></a> on its blockade of Australian coal, releasing ships carrying the fuel that have been waiting to unload for months. And India, state-owned <a href="https://www.coalindia.in/"><strong>Coal India</strong></a> has been ordered to raise output of thermal coal sharply. Everywhere, demand for <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/propane" target="_blank"><strong>propane</strong></a>, <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/european-union/harmonised-idx-of-consumer-prices-hicp-diesel-eurostat-data.html" target="_blank"><strong>diesel</strong></a> and fuel oil is very high and prices