After a solid recovery in risk yesterday, markets are taking on a calmer approach so far today. The more tentative and pensive mood is well warranted, as we are waiting on the Fed policy decision to come later.
Major currencies aren't showing much appetite outside of a mild bounce in the aussie, which isn't anything to really shout about. EUR/USD is stuck within a 10 pips range after a climb to its highest in five weeks yesterday, holding around 1.0770 now. The 1.0800 mark remains a bit of a short-term challenge and will be a resistance level to watch with the Fed in contention.
Looking elsewhere, US futures are also more muted with Treasury yields just slightly lower after the strong rebound in the day before. 2-year yields in the US are down slightly by 3 bps to 4.148% but it isn't really signaling much as the daily range is still extremely tight; considering the kind of volatility that we have seen in the past two weeks.
Coming up in European trading, UK inflation is one to watch and estimates are showing that headline annual inflation should decline slightly from 10.1% in January to 9.9% in February. Likewise, core annual inflation should also ease marginally from 5.8% in January to 5.7% in February.
Even so, those figures are surely of little comfort for the BOE unless there is a pickup in the decline of price pressures in the months ahead.
0700 GMT - UK February CPI figures
0900 GMT - Eurozone January current account balance
1100 GMT - UK March CBI trends total orders
1100 GMT - US MBA mortgage applications w.e. 17 March
That's all for the session ahead. I wish you all the best of days to come and good luck with your trading! Stay safe out there.
