Headlines:

Markets:

  • AUD leads, USD lags on the day
  • European equities mildly higher; S&P 500 futures flat
  • US 10-year yields up 3.1 bps to 3.814%
  • Gold up 0.3% to $1,946.44
  • WTI crude up 0.8% to $73.14
  • Bitcoin up 0.3% to $26,435

It was a rather slow and quiet session as there were not many headlines for markets to work with. The Fed countdown continues and there wasn't much appetite in major currencies and broader market sentiment for the most part.

The only sole data saw the euro area economy suffer the mildest of winter recessions but that won't put off the ECB from going more aggressively on policy still.

In FX, things were mostly little changed early on before the dollar was met with some offers during the session. Despite that, the levels now are still very much similar to what we have gotten since last Friday mostly.

The only exceptions are perhaps USD/CAD and AUD/USD, with both the loonie and aussie benefiting from surprise rate hikes by their respective central banks this week.

The former is running lower to 1.3350 now after testing key technical support again at around 1.3335 as outlined here. Meanwhile, the latter is running up against its 200-day moving average at 0.6690 as buyers are hoping for a breakthrough in keeping the recent momentum going.

Elsewhere, equities sentiment remains rather tentative at best while in the commodities space, gold is seeing a light bounce after testing its own 100-day moving average here.