Kia ora,

Welcome to Friday's Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect New Zealand.

I'm David Chaston and this is the International edition from Interest.co.nz.

Today we lead with news markets are much more cautious today, winding back the post-election, post-vaccine enthusiasm.

In the US, new claims for jobless benefits fell marginally to 723,000 although the previous week's number was revised up. That makes the total number of people supported by these benefits at now 21.2 mln and that is down -374,000 in a week. This shows -1.1 mln people lost qualification in a week or found work. This time last year, the total number on jobless benefits was 1.4 mln.

There is almost no chance new support for those who have lost their jobs is arriving before the new President is sworn in. And after that, it will depend on the makeup of the Senate after the Georgia runoff election.

And American inflation is falling. Overall inflation is +1.2% pa, and core inflation (without food or energy) is at +1.6%. Both measures are lower in October than September. Food prices were up +3.9% in a year, petrol prices were down -18% in a year. Rents are up +2.0%, medical care is up +3.7%.

Meanwhile, prices for single family homes rose +12% in the September quarter, the fastest rise in seven years. A lot of this is being driven by higher prices on both the East and West Coast states.

In Canada, homeowners there are bracing for rising mortgage interest rates. As bond rates turn up, Canadians may be the first to feel the impact of a turn up in the rates they pay.

The ten member ASEAN trade group has started on building a travel corridor between each of them.

And iron ore prices are staying high. Coal prices are rising. However, shipping prices are starting to retreat again.

And Wall Street is slipping today. The S&P500 is down -1.1% in early afternoon trade. Overnight, European markets also fell, mostly by about -1.2%. Yesterday's Shanghai fell another -0.1%. Hong Kong fell -0.2% but the very large Tokyo exchange rose +0.7%. Locally the ASX200 ended down -0.5% and the NZX50 Capital Index ended unchanged.

The latest global compilation of COVID-19 data is here. The global tally is 52,331,000 and a surge of +467,000 rise in the past day.

The largest number of reported cases globally are still in the US, which rose +146,000 since this time yesterday to 10,730,000.

In Australia, they are not getting any resurgence.

The UST 10yr yield will start today much lower than yesterday at 0.90% and a fall of -6 bps.

The price of gold has risen today, up +US$16/oz from this time yesterday, and now US$1880/oz.

Oil prices are stable today and are still at just over US$42/bbl in the US, while the international price is now just under US$44.50/bbl.

And the Kiwi dollar has settled at its higher level, now at 68.8 USc and its highest since March 2019. Against the Australian dollar we are also unchanged at 94.6 AUc. Against the euro we are a little softer at 58.2 euro cents. That means our TWI-5 is still at 71.8 and its high for the year.

The bitcoin price is another up +2.5% this morning at US$16,138.

You can find links to the articles mentioned today in our show notes.

And get more news affecting the economy in New Zealand from interest.co.nz.

Kia ora. I'm David Chaston. We will do this again on Monday.