- More from Fed's Bullard: Fed's reaction to pandemic wasn't bad policy
- Fed's Bullard:The economy is slowing to trend rate of growth as expected w/ Fed's actions
- Major European indices are closing higher
- ECB's Lagarde: Must be attentive to recession risk
- More BOE's Mann: Latest BOE minutes have important message about an vigilant on inflation
- More Lagarde: Fight against fragmentation is preconditioned to success of monetary policy
- BOE MPC's Mann:Data suggest trade-off in terms of rising inflation vs deteriorating income
- ECB's Lagarde: We intend to raise rates by 25 basis points at our July meeting
- The NZD is the strongest and the USD is the weakest as the NA session begins
- ForexLive European FX news wrap: Dollar softer with US holiday in focus
The US traders were off in observance of Juneteenth with banks, federal offices and exchanges closed for the day. As a result, there was little in the way of news headlines and there was no economic releases.
There was some chatter from central bank figures from the ECB, BOE and Fed.
ECB's Lagarde said the ECB intends to raise rates by 25 bps at the next meeting. She echoed concerns about fragmentation, and the risks of inflation.
BOE's Catherine Mann also was speaking. Mann dissented at the last meeting in favor of a 50 basis point hike. She is increasingly concerned about embedded inflation.
Finally, on the speaking docket was Fed's Bullard who was speaking from Barcelona, Spain. Bullard one of the more hawkish Fed officials, had been touting an end of 2022 rate of 3.5% for a month or two now. Lo and behold, last week, the Fed dot plot targetted 3.4% touting (which in effect is 3.25% to 3.50% or 3.4%), up from 1.9%. So win, win, chicken dinner for Bullard.
Bullard, patted himself on a back a bit, saying the US economy is slowing to the trend rate of growth as expected and that the central bank is moving quickly. He also hopes that the other central banks raising rates will indeed slow inflation although he acknowledges that there exists risk including Ukraine and supply chain shocks.
The forex markets were waffled here and there with limited price action.
At the start of the NA session, the NZD was the strongest and the USD was the weakest. At the end of the day the JPY passed the USD as the weakest However, most of the major currencies were relatively scrunched together.
Taking a look at other markets, they too were very quiet:
- spot gold fell $1.50 or -0.08% at $1837.80
- spot silver fell $0.08 or -0.38% at $21.58
- WTI crude oil for August delivery rose $0.78 or 0.72% at $108.77
- The price bitcoin is trading at $20,266, near the middle of the $19,616.02 $21,036 trading range
Major European indices closed higher:
- German DAX, +1.06%
- France's CAC, +0.64%
- UK's FTSE 100, +1.5%
- Spain's Ibex, +1.72%
- Italy's FTSE MIB +1.0%