Some positivity overnight, stocks have bounced back and in Asia, the Nikkei was +2.8%. In the US, Nvidia, the poster child of the artificial-intelligence boom, is back above $800 and Texas Instruments gave a bullish revenue forecast. In the currency markets, all eyes are on USDJPY and the 155 level, with a former top Japanese foreign exchange official warning the country is on the brink of currency intervention. Please name a time when this has been a successful strategy?!
Datawise New Zealand trade figures today saw exports up to NZD6.5bn and imports down to NZD5.9nm, a trade surplus of NZD588m, which is good news. In Australia, Q1 CPI was higher than 0.8% q-o-q and 3.5% y-o-y expected at 1.0% and 3.6%. Next up we have the April IFO survey for Germany where a gradual improvement in ‘Business Climate’, ‘Current Assessment’ and ‘Expectations’ is expected. In the US, we get MBA mortgage applications, durable goods orders for March, 2.5% m-o-m expected, and in Canada retail sales for February 0.1% m-o-m expected. On the speaking front we hear from De Cos, Cipollone, Nagel, Villeroy and Schnabel from the ECB, and the Bank of Canada will be releasing its Summary of Deliberations for the March policy meeting.
Marketwise we have earnings from IBM, Boeing and Meta Platforms today. the price of spot gold rose 0.2% to $2,327.46 an ounce, Bitcoin rose 0.6% to $66,729.77, the yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced two basis points to 4.62% Cable opens at 1.2450 and EURUSD sub 1.07. There feels like there might be a Spring in the air....
