Headlines:Lavrov: Peace talks with Ukraine aren’t easy but there is certain hope for compromiseIEA says 3 mil bpd of Russian oil could be shut in from April as sanctions biteNickel trading reopens on LME, hits 5% lower limitChinese equities bounce back strongly on the dayChina vice premier Liu He: M

Prior +8.5%Market index 496.5 vs 502.5 priorPurchase index 269.5 vs 267.6 priorRefinancing index 1,778.3 vs 1,829.7 prior30-year mortgage rate 4.27% vs 4.09% priorThe drop comes as the 30-year rate rises to its highest since May 2019, as refinancing activity is marked lower and offsetting the slight

I’m gonna expand some thoughts from this post earlier here.At this stage, there is only one focus when it comes to the Fed and that is inflation. It is the hot topic on everyone’s lips but what exactly can the Fed really do at the moment?As inflation in the US (and across the globe) soars, everyone

Sees no sign of wage-price spiralShould focus on normalising monetary policyI’d agree that any major connections to a wage-price spiral are not evident at the moment but other issues encompassed by stagflation risks are certainly there. The big issue here though is that what exactly do central banks

At this stage, the Fed has little propensity to surprise on the rate decision today. When markets wanted to run with a 50 bps pricing, they pulled it back and boxed themselves into a 25 bps move later. It would be a big surprise if they do actually hike by 50 bps today but perhaps not entirely u