ECB’s Visco: June rate hike out of the question, July perhaps the time to start
ECB’s Muller: The focus needs to be on fighting high inflation
ECB’s Kazaks says hopes that first rate hike will take place in July
BOE’s Pill: Policy tightening still has further to run
Japan PM Kishida: Rapid movements in the yen currency are undesirable
Russian gas flow to Finland to be halted on 21 May at 0400 GMT
Shanghai feel the economic pinch of lockdown measures in April
UK April retail sales +1.4% vs -0.2% m/m expected
Germany April PPI +2.8% vs +1.4% m/m expected
Markets:
NZD leads, JPY lags on the day
European equities higher; S&P 500 futures up 1.1%
US 10-year yields up 1.4 bps to 2.869%
Gold up 0.1% to $1,843.42
WTI crude up 0.2% to $112.45
Bitcoin up 0.5% to $30,333
It was a quiet session in terms of headline as markets kept steadier overall after a lot of pushing and pulling on the week.
Equities tracked higher, with European indices posting gains of around 1.4% to 1.8% across the board while US futures also extended their advance to over 1% on the session. That said, it will still take a miracle for US stocks to prevent a seventh consecutive weekly decline and that says a lot about sentiment at the moment despite the light respite.
The mood in FX is also not hinting at much although the dollar looks set for a weekly decline – the first in seven.
EUR/USD is little changed around 1.0560-70 levels while USD/JPY is hugging the 128.00 level for the most part with Treasury yields mostly little changed.
The pound saw a decent recovery from 1.2450 to near 1.2500 before sellers stepped in again near the figure level to keep gains in check. Elsewhere, AUD/USD is seen advancing to 0.7050-60 and a weekly close above 0.7000 will be a welcome development for buyers.Besides that, the Chinese yuan continued its snapback on the week, set for its best weekly performance since de-pegging from the dollar back in 2005.
Some food for thought: