China Opens to Recovery; Yuan Moves Up

Lifting the lockdown and the end of the Lunar New Year celebrations led to a strong rebound in Chinese economic activity. The manufacturing PMI jumped to 52.6 in February from 50.1 the previous month, according to an official release from the CFLP. MarkIt’s manufacturing PMI (which conducts similar surveys worldwide) rose from 49.2 to 51.6 […]

Inflation in Focus

Market movers today Focus today is on the euro area flash HICP figures for February. Country inflation data have surprised on the upside this week and suggest a renewed uptick in headline inflation to 8.8%, with core inflation likely marking yet another record high from January’s 5.3%. With the economy and labour market holding up […]

Higher Yields Weigh on Equity Valuations as Inflation Heats Up

Europe is not having a good week in terms of economic news. Today, investors will be focused on the flash CPI estimate for February, but there is not much suspense about the fact that the data will disappoint. On Tuesday, the data showed that French inflation hit a record, Spanish inflation ticked higher as well, […]

Actual Attention Goes to European Inflation Number

Markets German inflation joined the French and Spanish example by surprising to the upside. It again was key for the European trading session with German yields surging another 4.4-7.6 bps across the curve to close at new cycle highs. In doing so, the 10y yield (2.71%) added conviction to Tuesday’s break above the 2.57% resistance […]

EUR/USD Dips as Eurozone Inflation Eases

The euro remains busy and is down 0.40% on Thursday, trading at 1.0624. This follows the euro gaining 0.90% a day earlier. Eurozone inflation falls to 8.6% The euro’s moves today and yesterday have in large part been dictated by inflation releases. Earlier today, Eurozone Final CPI came in at 8.6% for January, down sharply […]

A Pinch of Salt

Equity markets are heading for a positive start to the session, paring Wednesday’s gains as investors digest the latest Fed minutes. The usual caveat applies to the minutes, being that a lot of time has passed, and to a great extent, the contents of them are either outdated or known. Still, as we saw on […]

Bitcoin Maintains a Positive Short-term Outlook

Market Picture Bitcoin closed below $24K for the first time in 8 days on Wednesday. On Thursday morning, however, buyers regained the upper hand, pushing the coin up to $24.4K. BTC came under pressure on Tuesday and Wednesday amid falling stock indices. Last night, the decline paused, which helped the crypto market recover some of […]

Dollar Creeps Up

The Dollar Index has risen 3.8% to 104.5 from its lows in early February. Prior to that, the dollar index had been falling since late September, giving back half of the gains from the global rally triggered by the Fed’s sharp monetary tightening. Although the dollar’s decline in recent months has been deeper than a […]

AUD/USD Rises on Strong Capital Spending

The Australian dollar has rebounded on Thursday, after a 2-day slide in which AUD/USD lost 100 points. In European trade, AUD/USD is trading at 0.6830, up 0.37%. On Wednesday, the Australian dollar fell to 0.6794, its lowest level since Jan. 6. Australian Capex rebounds in Q4 Australia’s private capital expenditure jumped 2.2% q/q in Q4 2022, […]

Japan Jan Inflation and Ueda Testimony

After taking a break on Wednesday for the Emperor’s birthday, the yen could be in for some substantial volatility for the rest of the week. On Tuesday, the BOJ was forced to step in to defend the bounds of its YCC, buying up ¥400B in bonds. The markets are clearly anxious to see when and […]