Market Commentary: Monday 20th May

Metals, Base and Precious have made the headlines overnight as the price of copper and gold both climbed to record highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, a select group of blue chips closed above 40,000 for the first time on Friday and optimism about US easing is fuelling these rallies. So, what about the week ahead?

We have UK CPI on Wednesday and Japan CPI on Friday. Domestically, will the number have a 2 handle? If it does, there will be excitement about domestic easing. The other key events will be the FOMC minutes from April 30-May 1 policy meeting on Wednesday and Reserve Bank of Australia issues minutes of May policy meeting, Tuesday.

As for today, it is mainly about speeches at 10am. There is a speech from the Bank of England deputy governor Ben Broadbent, and then later we hear from FOMC member Bostic, followed by a speech by FOMC member Barr at 2pm.

Marketwise, Nikkei 225 futures rose 1.2%, the yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.41%, Bitcoin rose 0.8% to $66,700.41, Ether rose 0.7% to $3,097.43. USDJPY opens at 155.70, GBPUSD at 1.2705 and EURUSD at 1.0880.

Equity wise Nvidia is the last of the high-profile US earnings reports to come through, and in the UK Marks & Spencer and Aviva both publish figures.

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