Headlines:
- ECB's Visco: June rate hike out of the question, July perhaps the time to start
- ECB's Muller: The focus needs to be on fighting high inflation
- ECB's Kazaks says hopes that first rate hike will take place in July
- BOE's Pill: Policy tightening still has further to run
- Japan PM Kishida: Rapid movements in the yen currency are undesirable
- Russian gas flow to Finland to be halted on 21 May at 0400 GMT
- Shanghai feel the economic pinch of lockdown measures in April
- UK April retail sales +1.4% vs -0.2% m/m expected
- Germany April PPI +2.8% vs +1.4% m/m expected
Markets:
- NZD leads, JPY lags on the day
- European equities higher; S&P 500 futures up 1.1%
- US 10-year yields up 1.4 bps to 2.869%
- Gold up 0.1% to $1,843.42
- WTI crude up 0.2% to $112.45
- Bitcoin up 0.5% to $30,333
It was a quiet session in terms of headline as markets kept steadier overall after a lot of pushing and pulling on the week.
Equities tracked higher, with European indices posting gains of around 1.4% to 1.8% across the board while US futures also extended their advance to over 1% on the session. That said, it will still take a miracle for US stocks to prevent a seventh consecutive weekly decline and that says a lot about sentiment at the moment despite the light respite.
The mood in FX is also not hinting at much although the dollar looks set for a weekly decline - the first in seven.
EUR/USD is little changed around 1.0560-70 levels while USD/JPY is hugging the 128.00 level for the most part with Treasury yields mostly little changed.
The pound saw a decent recovery from 1.2450 to near 1.2500 before sellers stepped in again near the figure level to keep gains in check. Elsewhere, AUD/USD is seen advancing to 0.7050-60 and a weekly close above 0.7000 will be a welcome development for buyers.
Besides that, the Chinese yuan continued its snapback on the week, set for its best weekly performance since de-pegging from the dollar back in 2005.
Some food for thought:
