• Fed’s Bowman: not yet at the point where it is appropriate to cut rates
• Major currencies not showing much appetite on the day
• France on the verge of a political standstill?
• Japan finance minister says will closely monitor currency movements
• European equities on the backfoot again after the gains yesterday
• Spain Q1 final GDP +0.8% vs +0.7% q/q prelim
• What are the main events for today?
• Eurostoxx futures -0.4% in early European trading
• Little on the agenda in the session ahead
• Japan April revised leading indicator index 110.9 vs 111.7 prior
• FX stays little changed ahead of European morning trade

The
European session was pretty uneventful. On the data front, we just saw the
Spain Final Q1 GDP which beat expectations slightly. We also got the usual
jawboning comments from the Japanese Finance Minister as USD/JPY continues to trade
near the previous intervention level at 160.00.

Near the
end of the session, we got the comments from Fed Governor Bowman (hawk – voter)
who continues to maintain her hawkish stance as she wants to see more progress
before easing the policy rate.

Looking at
the markets, we’ve seen a pretty rangebound price action almost across the
board. The major currency pairs are mostly flat on the day although the US Dollar is picking up some pace going into the American session. In the equity
space, after an early morning weakness, we saw a bit of a bounce.

Gold and US
Treasuries are mostly flat. The biggest mover has been Bitcoin which has
already erased all the late yesterday’s losses and it looks like the bullish
momentum could have further legs. Crude oil is down roughly 0.6% on the day but it’s
still above the key $80 level.

The focus
will now switch to the American session as we get the Canadian CPI and the US
Consumer Confidence reports. Some further easing in the Canadian underlying
inflation figures should seal the rate cut in July with the market assigning a
65% probability at the moment.

The US
Consumer Confidence will be something to watch, especially the labour market
details given the recent weakness in US Jobless Claims.

This article was written by Giuseppe Dellamotta at www.forexlive.com.