The market continues to wait on US inflation data later today
S&P 500 futures and Dow futures are now up 0.2% after having been relatively flat throughout the session with Nasdaq futures erasing losses of around 0.2% to keep near flat levels just above positive territory for now.

Latest data released by NFIB – 13 April 2021
– 95.8
US small businesses saw optimism grow as the index climbs to a four-month high in anticipation of stronger sales and expansion opportunities in the months ahead.

Latest data released by ZEW – 13 April 2021
ZEW notes that investors are somewhat less euphoric and fears of a stricter lockdown have led to a decline in expectations for private consumption.

Forex news from the European trading session – 12 April 2021
Headlines:
Markets:
– GBP leads, USD lags on the day
– European equities mixed; E-minis down 0.1%

Business Insider reports on the matter
The current set of restrictions was set to run through to 18 April and given the virus situation, this isn’t so much a surprise. We’ll see about the details later on and if Merkel will call for tighter measures such as nighttime curfews and such.

Remarks by German chancellor, Angela Merkel
The 7-day incidence rate continues to keep relatively high at 136.4 as of today and it has been trending in the wrong direction since early March – the target back then was to try and get that figure down to 50.0, just for some context.

PBOC monetary policy department head, Sun Guofeng, remarks
Well, the latest certainly backs up their commitment but we’ll see how things go in the coming months, with the market keeping a watchful eye in case Chinese officials decide to surreptitiously tighten policy.

10-year Treasury yields little changed at 1.657%
Apart from some modest strength in the pound and yen, there isn’t much happening in the market to start the new week. US futures holding a little lower while Treasuries aren’t offering any firm direction so far today.

Bitcoin up 3% today
I last month about bitcoin’s habit of rallying on Saturday’s and today that was the case again. It’s up 3.1% to $60,156 today and touched as high as $61,218.

Back in November last year Chinese authorities halted Ma’s Ant Group US$34.5B IPO.
Jack Ma, who controls Alibaba, had criticized domestic (and global) regulators for stifling financial services innovation, criticism the CCP did not appreciate.