Headlines:
- Dollar trims losses as the tension continues to build
- Wells Fargo reports beat on earnings, profit rise on higher rates
- JP Morgan joins in on the earnings beat
- Fed's Bostic: Recent developments are consistent with us hiking one more time
- ECB's Wunsch: May policy decision is between 25 bps and 50 bps rate hikes
- ECB's Lagarde says expect euro area inflation to continue to fall
- France March final CPI +5.7% vs +5.6% y/y prelim
- Spain March final CPI +3.3% vs +3.3% y/y prelim
- Germany March wholesale price index +0.2% vs +0.1% m/m prior
- Switzerland March producer and import prices +0.2% vs -0.2% m/m prior
Markets:
- EUR leads, GBP lags on the day
- European equities higher; S&P 500 futures down 0.1%
- US 10-year yields up 0.7 bps to 3.458%
- Gold down 0.3% to $2,033.95
- WTI crude up 0.3% to $82.25
- Bitcoin up 1.6% to $30,797
It was a bit of a quiet session as markets are contemplating the reaction to the US CPI data earlier in the week. The dollar slumped in trading yesterday and was under some light pressure early on, before paring losses to sit steadier now.
As things stand, we are seeing some key technical levels being contested across multiple dollar pairs and that could still result in a break lower in the greenback before the weekend. But for now, it looks like we have to wait on the US retail sales later today.
There was just some light pushing and pulling among major currencies with EUR/USD easing from 1.1070 to 1.1045 during the session while GBP/USD fell from 1.2530 to 1.2490 as the dollar regains a bit more poise.
AUD/USD also fell from 0.6790 to 0.6765 while USD/CAD inched higher from 1.3315 to 1.3335 at the moment. As you can see, the changes are relatively light, all things considered.
In the equities space, European stocks are still pushing for further gains while strong bank earnings is helping to see US futures keep calmer, with Dow futures rising at the expense of tech stocks.
It's over to the next big data to see if we will get the potential dollar breakdown or if the greenback is going to be making a stand ahead of the weekend.
