Latest data released by CBI – 21 October 2021
From higher material costs to labour shortages, manufacturers continue to face a number of serious global supply challenges hampering their ability to meet strong demand.
Meanwhile, the business optimism index slumped from 27 in July to 2 in October – its lowest since January when the UK re-entered

Russia recorded a record number of 34,073 cases and 1,028 deaths related to COVID-19 on Wednesday
While there are many parts of the world starting to flip the page on the pandemic, not everywhere is seeing a similar recovery story unfortunately.

Forex news from the European trading session – 20 October 2021
Headlines:
Markets:
– NZD leads, GBP lags on the day
– European equities mildly higher; S&P 500 futures flat

Latest data from the Mortgage Bankers Association for the week ending 15 October 2021
–  +0.2%
– Market index 643.0 vs 686.1 prior
– Purchase index 266.2 vs 279.8 prior

AUD/JPY is knocking on the door of the highs for the year
The pair hit a high if 85.93 earlier today, which is the highest since February 2018 but is seen now trading around 85.60-70 levels in European trading.

Lagarde responds to Weidmann’s resignation
Well, at least that is one less tough figure to deal with for Lagarde but it’s always good to have a strong opinion in a collective board such as the ECB. In any case, one can still expect the next German stepping up to have similar views to Weidmann.

Latest data released by Eurostat – 20 October 2021
The preliminary release can be found . No change to the initial estimates as it reaffirms a continued jump in euro area annual inflation, keeping the pressure on the ECB to try and maintain its supposed ‚transitory‘ narrative.

Reuters report, citing sources with knowledge of the matter
A few weeks back, Evergrande were involved in a deal to sell a 51% stake in its property services unit to Hopson Development Holdings as part of a restructuring plan to avoid a potential default in the firm.

Remarks by ECB policymaker, Boštjan Vasle
It looks like someone didn’t quite get the message on the whole transitory inflation narrative. But as long as majority – if not most – policymakers continue to play it down, don’t expect the market to take much cues from the remarks above.

Dollar falls to the lows for the day
USD/JPY is sitting slightly lower around 114.00-10 as it has throughout the session but the rest of the major currencies bloc have pulled higher against the two currencies.