First-world economic surge

<p>Kia ora,</p><p>Welcome to Wednesday’s holiday edition Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/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 the first-world expansion seems to be gathering momentum.</p><p>Wall Street is trading today, little-changed from Yesterday, but yesterday the S&P500 hit a record high. Overnight, most European markets did trade and were up +0.5%, but Frankfurt gained +0.8%. Paris and Frankfurt also closed at all-time record highs. London was the exception because it was closed. Yesterday, Tokyo was the day's enthusiast, rising +1.4% yesterday. Hong Kong ended up +0.2% yesterday, and Shanghai was up +0.4%. Both the ASX and the NZX were closed yesterday and will undoubtedly trade with very thin volumes today.</p><p>The rise on Wall Street was driven by <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/redbook-index" target="_blank"><strong>very strong retail sales reports</strong></a>, with pre-Christmas sales gains as strong as those for Black Friday.</p><p>That was backed up by an improving report from the <a href="https://www.richmondfed.org/-/media/RichmondFedOrg/research/regional_economy/surveys_of_business_conditions/manufacturing/2021/pdf/mfg_12_28_21.pdf" target="_blank"><strong>Richmond Fed's factory survey</strong></a>. However, the <a href="https://www.dallasfed.org/research/surveys/tmos/2021/2112.aspx" target="_blank"><strong>Dallas Fed's similar survey</strong></a> eased off a little even if it still at a very high level.</p><p>Median yields on the <a href="https://www.treasurydirect.gov/instit/annceresult/press/preanre/2021/R_20211227_3.pdf" target="_blank"><strong>US Treasury 2yr bond auction</strong></a> rose to 0.73% (0.58% <a href="https://www.treasurydirect.gov/instit/annceresult/press/preanre/2021/R_20211122_2.pdf" target="_blank"><strong>last time</strong></a>) with strong demand. For the <a href="https://www.treasurydirect.gov/instit/annceresult/p