forex
The strongest to the weakest of the major currencies

The EUR is the strongest and the AUD is the weakest as the NA session begins. The USD is marginally higher with gains vs all the currencies with the exception of the EUR. The USDCHF, NZDUSD and GBPUSD are near unchanged though.

The week is chock-a-block with earnings, central bank policy, Eurozone flash CPI and ends with the all important US employment on Friday.

On the earnings calendar this week will be Meta on Wednesday. On Thursday, Apple, Amazon and Alphabet are all scheduled to report on Thursday. Others scheduled for release include: Exxon, Pfizer, Caterpillar, GM, and AMD on Tuesday, Alibaba and Paypal on Wednesday, Visa, Mastercard, Merck, Honeywell, Starbucks and Ford on Thursday.

The Fed is expected to increase rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday to 4.75%. The ECB and BOE are both expected to raise rates by 50 basis points on Thursday. The ECB will also release CPI flash on Wednesday which is expected to slow for the 3rd month to 9.0%, which is in the right direction but it is still 9%. The BOE is dealing with an inflation rate at 10.5% which is down from 11.1% peak, but at over 5X the targeted rate, that is still a huge problem for the central bank. The ECB is hiking to 3% from 2.5%. The BOE is expected to hike to 4% from 3.5%.

The US employment report on Friday but the to show a slowing of the job gains to 193K versus 223K last month. The unemployment rate is expected to take up to 3.6% from 3.5%.

The US stocks and European stocks are lower to start the week after solid gains last week. US yields are higher

In other markets, the snapshot of the market is showing:

  • Spot gold is down two dollars or -0.10% at $1925.44
  • Spot silver is trading up $0.10 or 0.41% at $23.67
  • WTI crude oil is trading down seven cents and $79.61
  • Bitcoin is trading at $23,069. The high price over the weekend reached $23,954 on Sunday. It's 200 day moving averages at $24,834.40. Key level above.

The premarket for US stocks, the futures are implying the major indices will open lower after solid gains last week.

  • Dow Industrial Average is trading down 217 points after Friday's 28.67 point rise. For the week the Dow Industrial Average rose 1.81%
  • S&P index is down -35 points after Friday's 10.15 point rise. The S&P gained 2.47% last week
  • NASDAQ index is down -145 points after Friday's 109.30 point rise. The NASDAQ index gained 4.32% last week

In the European equity markets, the major indices are trading mostly lower

  • German DAX, -0.5%
  • France's CAC, -0.54%
  • UK's FTSE 100, +0.08%
  • Spain's Ibex, -0.35%
  • Italy's FTSE MIB -0.32%

In the Asian-Pacific market, major indices are mixed

  • Japan's Nikkei rose 0.19%
  • New Zealand 50 index fell -0.02%
  • Australia's S&P/ASX index -0.16%
  • Hang Seng index -2.73%
  • Shanghai index +0.14%

In the US debt market yields are higher:

  • 2 year 4.244%, +3.7 basis points
  • 5 year 3.670%, +5.0 basis points
  • 10 year 3.556% +3.9 basis points
  • 30 year 3.667% +3.4 basis points

In the European debt market, the benchmark 10 year yields are higher head of the rate decisions this week:

Yields
European benchmark 10 year yields are higher