Headlines:
- ECB turns a blind eye to recession risks for now
- ECB's Lagarde: Inflation remains too high
- ECB's Kazaks: Market bets on rate cuts in early 2024 are wrong
- ECB's Simkus: Should not rule out the option of a September rate hike
- BOE's Dhingra: UK wages are responding to inflation with a lag
- Morgan Stanley sees Fed hiking rates by 25 bps in July
Markets:
- EUR leads, JPY lags on the day
- European equities mixed; S&P 500 futures up 0.1%
- US 10-year yields flat at 3.721%
- Gold down 0.1% to $1,921.59
- WTI crude down 1.8% to $68.15
- Bitcoin up 1.7% to $30,668
It was a relatively quiet session as there wasn't any economic data for market players to work with. But we did hear from some ECB speakers, and they continued to push through with a more hawkish rhetoric as they reaffirmed the rate hike for July.
That more or less is akin to brushing aside the poor economic data since Friday and that is seeing the euro gain some modest ground on the day. EUR/USD is up 0.4% to 1.0945 but the rest of the major currencies bloc is looking more subdued.
USD/JPY and GBP/USD are keeping in narrow ranges with the former flat at 143.55 with the latter up just 0.1% to 1.2725 currently.
EUR/JPY though is among the standout today as it jumps up to above 157.00 to its highest since 2008.
Meanwhile, the aussie and kiwi were initially upbeat in Asia, after China decided to intervene to prop up the yuan today. AUD/USD was up to around 0.6720 in the handover to Europe but is now trading just up 0.2% at 0.6680.
This comes as risk tones are also keeping more stale after a bit of an optimistic start. It looked like markets were wanting to take a bit of a breather but European stocks are now trading mixed with some major indices sitting lower. Treasury yields have also pared their early advance and that hints at more caution ahead of US trading again.