- US February new home sales 772K vs 810K expected
- Putin: We plan to switch to roubles when selling gas to non-friendly countries
- Fed's Bullard: Europe could be pulled into a recession as a result of Ukraine war
- UK budget: Fuel duty to be cut for a year by 5 pence per litre immediately
- UK OBR forecasts for GDP growth sharply lower in 2022
- Fed's Daly: We are prepared to do whatever it takes to get price stability
- Fed's Mester: Frontloading hikes better positions policy going forward
- Powell: Highly likely digital currency activities outside of regulation will come under it
- US treasury auctions off $16 billion a 20 year bonds at a high yield of 2.651%
- Eurozone consumer confidence for March -18.7 versus estimate of -12.9
- Crude oil inventories -2.5M vs estimate of +0.114M build
- Iran foreign minister: We're closer than ever to a nuclear deal
Markets:
- Gold up $25 to $1946
- US 10-year yields down 8 bps to 2.29%
- WTI Crude up $5.46 to $114.73
- S&P 500 down 55 points to 4456
- CAD leads, GBP lags
The Australian dollar rallied for the sixth straight day as it erased an early dip in North American trade and finished at the highs of the day, narrowly trailing only the loonie, which was boosted by another climb in oil prices. With today's rally, AUD/JPY rose to the best levels since 2015.
The broad mood went against the AUD rally as US stocks fell despite a retracement in Treasury yields. That's a tough one to explain but it's part of the shifting playing field lately. We're closing in on quarter end, which is also fiscal year-end in Japan and that could be pushing the yen moves further and faster than normal.
The euro stumbled early to 1.0960 but climbed back to 1.1010 late as the pair continues to trade inverse to the risk trade. Cable gave back some of yesterday's gain in a steady fall to 1.3200 into the London fix and flat trading from there. The lows of the day were just before the UK budget but there weren't any real surprises.
The late mover in the day was gold as it climbed back to the top of the one-week range. After some huge moves at the start of the month it's quieted but it won't stay that way for long.
Oil continues to be extremely volatile and is benefiting from talk of Russian oil export capacity losses and the slow progress on Iran nuclear talks.
