Dollar pushes to fresh highs for the year
AUD/USD has slumped to a fresh low since 8 February below 0.7700 as it leads the drop in the major currencies space today. Adding to that is EUR/USD pushing to a fresh low of 1.1915, its lowest level in three months as highlighted earlier.

European equities fall alongside US futures
The Eurostoxx is down 1% with the DAX down 0.7% on the day currently, extending declines from earlier as risk sentiment keeps more fragile for now.

All eyes are on the Fed chair as he speaks later today at 1705 GMT
I’ll try to keep this as short and succinct as possible.
There’s only two ways that things are going to play out today. It is either the market feels that Powell has offered enough of a pushback against the recent rise in

EUR/USD eases to session lows of 1.2067
It has been a relatively choppy session for major currencies as the dollar rocks back and forth on the session with little firm direction really.

Gold is down 0.9% on the day to $1,722
The bounce yesterday in gold is fizzling as the yellow metal continues to struggle to stay afloat for the most part after breaking the November low @ $1,764.80.

Further comments by Weidmann
report

Comments by ECB policymaker and Bundesbank president, Jens Weidmann
Some token remarks there by Weidmann but that fits with the market narrative at the moment as well, with the way bonds have reacted over the past two weeks. Essentially, a strong recovery is expected in 2H 2021 but that is still largely conditional on how the

EU says that its joint vaccine strategy is not unravelling
Most countries tend to sandbag the vaccine timeline as anything better will just make the incumbent government look good. As much as we want to believe that health priorities come first, politicians will be politicians at the end of the day.

Oil claws back earlier losses to unchanged levels around $60.65
WTI crude was down by 1% at the start of European trading just below $60 but has clawed its way back higher on the session as traders brush aside fears of OPEC+ increasing supply at the meeting later in the week.

The sentiment in the bond market is keeping the overall market mood more delicate once again in European morning trade
10-year Treasury yields are up 2 bps to session highs of 1.439% while Italian 10-year yields are seen up 5 bps to 0.71% and German 10-year yields are up 1 bps to -0.32%.