[Macro Matters] 5/17 Weekly Briefing
1. Economic Data Inflation Cooled in April; CPI Up 2.3% on Year - WSJ CPI(YoY): 2.3% in April. A four year low. Core CPI: 2.8%, matched forecasts. Markets remained silent, which might indicate investors think it's too early to gauge the full impacts of Trump’s tariff policies. The reporters stated that the front-loading of inventories would delay the impact of duties, citing quotes from Goldman Sachs. China’s New Loans Plunged 61% as Trade War With US Intensified - Bloomberg China's new loans in April declined sharply. Both household and corporate loans remain weak, which may imply that economic sentiment in China has deteriorated due to trade tensions with the U.S. China’s Riskier Short-Term Corporate Bond Spreads Hit Record Low - Bloomberg Risk premiums of Chinese corporate bonds reached lowest since 2022, suggesting that the recent monetary easing by the PBOC actually worked. Comment: Although tensions between the U.S and China eased and several s...