Headlines:
- As the banking turmoil ebbs, what is the Fed pricing looking like?
- ECB's Lane: Rates must rise if banking tension has no or 'fairly limited' impact
- ECB's Kazimir: We agreed not to give guidance about May policy meeting
- BOJ's Kuroda: Japan is closer than before to sustainably hit 2% inflation target
- Germany April GfK consumer confidence -29.5 vs -29.2 expected
- France March consumer confidence 81 vs 81 expected
- UK February mortgage approvals 43.54k vs 40.50k expected
- US MBA mortgage applications w.e. 24 March +2.9% vs +3.0% prior
Markets:
- EUR leads, JPY lags on the day
- European equities higher; S&P 500 futures up 0.9%
- US 10-year yields down 1 bps to 3.558%
- Gold down 0.5% to $1,963.49
- WTI crude up 1.0% to $73.96
- Bitcoin up 3.6% to $28,319
It was a light session in terms of headlines as markets are still coming to terms with the aftermath of the banking turmoil.
Equities nudged higher after a bit of a hiccup in Wall Street yesterday while bond yields initially moved up before coming down mid-way through European morning trade. In FX, the dollar sits a bit more mixed after having held slight gains at the start of the session.
European stocks are enjoying a good start to the day, pulling higher after a positive open, with gains also observed in US futures with tech sentiment rebounding.
Meanwhile, European and US bond yields were initially higher but erased that advance to fall lower, hinting at a push and pull as traders are still sorting out their feet ahead of month-end and quarter-end trading. There are also bigger factors to consider, as outlined here.
Looking over to major currencies, the yen is the laggard as it builds on losses from Asia trading. I mentioned here how it looks to be a catch up play to yields after USD/JPY did drop yesterday, with the pair rising from 131.70 to 132.20 in European trading - now up nearly 1% on the day.
Elsewhere, EUR/USD was choppy as it fell slightly to 1.0820 before climbing back up to sit 0.2% higher at 1.0865 at the moment. GBP/USD also saw a similar swing from 1.2305 to 1.2350 levels at the moment, up 0.1% on the day.
The antipodeans are among the laggards, with AUD/USD down 0.4% to 0.6680 and NZD/USD down 0.2% to 0.6240 as both currencies erase their advance from yesterday despite the better risk mood.
As much as market players would like to latch on to a theme to build something with, it looks like the potential mess involving month-end and quarter-end is preventing any real convictions for the time being.
