A quick recap of yesterday's Central Bank activity, the BoE was unchanged at 5.25%, the SNB cut 0.25% to 1.5%, the Norges Bank was unchanged at 4.50% and the Bank of Mexico decided to cut 25 bps, the first time since 2021. All this CB activity and the investment atmosphere is positive highlighted by Reddit Shares IPO soaring nearly 70% on its opening day and domestically, Next, the UK fashion retailer announced surging profits and claimed the high street is back!
In line with the Central Bank actions story the yield on 10-year Treasuries declined three basis points to 4.24%, Spot gold fell 0.5% to $2,171.28 an ounce, West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.6% to $80.59 a barrel, Ether rose 1.3% to $3,528.21, Sterling is looking soggy at 1.2620 and USDJPY opens at 151.50.
Data wise UK retail sales for February have just been released and are better than expected, flat mom when -0.4% was expected and -0.4% yoy on when -0.8% was expected. Later today we have Canadian retail sales for January (-0.4% m-o-m). The key release of the day would be the German IFO survey for March, but no material changes are expected. Central bank speakers include Powell, Bostic and Barr from the Fed, and Nagel, Holzmann and Centeno from the ECB. Is the market theme still higher for longer? Actions speak louder than words....
