Capex fizzer
Private new capital expenditure rebounded only by a tiny 1.1 per cent in the December quarter, to $33.3 billion.
This essentially only reversed the -1.1 per cent decline in investment in Q3, and it also comfortably missed the market median forecast for a 2.5 per cent increase.
CapEx investment plans for next year looked decent enough, though quite a bit can change between now and then, of course.
Ukraine pain
Stocks around many parts of the globe are crashing about -5 per cent lower on horrible Ukraine invasion news, while Russia's Moex index was down by a record -28 per cent as the Russian economy will suffer from economic sanctions.
The price of Brent crude has, meanwhile, soared to over $100 for the first time in 8 years.
Bitcoin was down -8 per cent, while the gold price has spiked towards $2,000, which probably says something about which of the two is the genuine safe haven asset.
Remember when the Fed was going to be forced to hike 50 basis points in March?
Imminent interest rate hikes appear to be melting away, like the wings of Icarus in the sun...
More grown-up analysis, as always, from James Foster here.
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Continued good news on the Omicron variant, as ICU cases have dropped to under 150, with only 47 ventilator cases now remaining in Australia.
