The new Covid outbreak, social restrictions, business closures, and lockdowns render most of the upcoming data mostly irrelevant. Given the serious spread of the infection and the seemingly slow rollout of the vaccine, the economic data will be distorted even though the impact may not be as severe as last March and April. Policy settings are also considerably more accommodative, though it does little to address the loss of capacity, especially in services. Manufacturing is holding up better than services, as one may expect. That is what the PMI reports showed, and what the industrial production data from Europe ... (full story)