As the North American session begins, the AUD is the strongest and the JPY is the weakest. The price action is limited once again (the ranges are 30 pips or less for all currency pairs except the USDJPY at 42 pips) as traders await central bank decisions this week including the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday. Other central bank decisions include:
- Bank of Japan: Tuesday
- Reserve Bank of Australia: Tuesday
- Swiss National Bank: Thursday
- Bank of England: Thursday
The Bank of Japan is expected to end its negative interest rate environment and yield curve control when they meet and announce their decision tomorrow. The other central banks are expected to keep rates unchanged with the market focus on central bank commentary for future policy action. The US Federal Reserve also financed their most recent dot plot and central tendencies for inflation, GDP, and employment.
Also on tap, this week include flash PMI data on Thursday for continental Europe, UK and the US. In Australia, they will announce its job statistics on Thursday in Australia. In Canada and UK, the CPI will be released on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively.
Overnight, an optimistic mood on China was supported by better-than-expected economic data on industrial output growing by 7% annually over January and February (vs 5.3% estimate. Retail sales increasing by 5.5% compared to the previous year. That was slightly lower than the estimate of 5.6%.
US stocks are off to a solid start today in anticipation of the Nvidia developers conference today. The NASDAQ index is leading the way with a gain of over 214 points. On Friday the NASDAQ index fell -155.36 points.
Shares of Nvidia are currently up 2.83% ahead of their conference. Also moving higher are:
- Super Micro Computers, +2.89%
- Meta Platforms, +1.32%
- Apple, +1.36%. Google and Apple are in talks about an AI iPhone using Google's Gemini AI.
- Google, +5.36%
- Tesla, +3.69%
A snapshot of the markets as the North American session begins currently shows:
- Crude oil is trading up seven cents or 0.09% at $81.11. At this time Friday, the price was at $80.81
- Gold is trading up $4.50 or 0.20% at $2160. At this time Friday, the price was at $2167.05
- Silver is trading unchanged at $25.17. At this time Friday, the price was at $25.19
- Bitcoin currently trades at $68,425. Last week the price reached a new all-time high at $73,794. At this time Friday, the price was trading at $67,782. The range over the weekend saw a high on Saturday at $70,069, had a low on Sunday at $64,522. The range today has been from $66,775 to $68,902
In the premarket, the major indices are trading higher. Last week the major indices all moved lower
- Dow Industrial Average futures are implying a gain of 65 points. On Friday, the index fell -190.89 points or -0.49% at 38714.78
- S&P futures are implying a gain of 45 points. On Friday, the index fell 33.37 points or -0.65% at 51.7.10
- Nasdaq futures are implying a gain of 226 points. On Friday, the index fell -155.36 points or -0.96% at 15973.17
In the European equity markets, the major indices are trading mostly higher.
- German DAX, +0.24%
- France CAC , +0.19%
- UK FTSE 100, +0.25%
- Spain's Ibex, +0.28%
- Italy's FTSE MIB, +0.22% (delayed by 10 minutes).
Shares in the Asian Pacific markets were mixed:
- Japan's Nikkei 225, +2.67%
- China's Shanghai Composite Index, +0.90%
- Hong Kong's Hang Seng index, was 0.10%
- Australia S&P/ASX index, +0.07%
Looking at the US debt market, yields are mixed with the longer in up marginally and the shorter end lower
- 2-year yield 4.714%, -0.8 basis points. At this time yesterday, the yield was at 4.704%
- 5-year yield 4.327%, +0.3 basis points. At this time yesterday, the yield was at 4.293%
- 10-year yield 4.308%, +0.4 basis points. At this time yesterday, the yield was at 4.282%
- 30-year yield 4.435%, +0.8 basis points. At this time yesterday, the yield was at 4.409%
- The 2-10 year spread is at -40.7 basis points. At this time yesterday, the spread was at -42.5 basis points
- The 2-30 year spread is at -27.9 basis points. At this time yesterday, the spread was at -29.4 basis points
European benchmark 10-year yields are mixed:
