The JPY is the strongest and the EUR is the weakest as the North American session begins. The JPY strength his reaction to BOJ governor report from Nikkei that the Kazuo Ueda would be nominated as the role of governor of the central bank starting April taking over from Kuroda. Ueda is a professor and former Bank of Japan board member. It had been thought that Masayoshi Amamiya would be nominated. He is known more as a dove, but the Nikkei reported that he declined the position. The uncertainty with Ueda sent the JPY to the upside by default, but the currency has come off overnight highs as well.
US stocks are set open lower. US yields are marginally higher. Yesterday, the 30 year bond auction was met with tepid demand across the board. That mirrored the results from the three year auction on Tuesday. In between the 10 year auction was met with strong demand.
The Canada jobs report will be released at the bottom of the hour with expectations of 15K vs 104K last month. The unemployment rate is expected to tick up to 5.1% from 5.0% last month.
University of Michigan consumer sentiment preliminary is expected to move marginally higher to 65.0 from 64.6 in the prior.
Fed's Waller and Harker, ECBs Schnabel, and BOE's Pill are all scheduled to speak.
A snapshot of the markets currently shows:
- Spot gold up $4.01 or 0.22% at $1864.58.
- Spot silver is up $0.15 or 0.72% at $22.11
- WTI crude oil is trading up at $79.24 after reaching a high of $80.33, the highest level since January 30. Russia cut supply in reaction to sanctions.
- Bitcoin is trading down at $21,811. The low today at $21,633 was the lowest level since January 20
In the pre-work for US stocks, the major indices as implied by the futures are lower after declines yesterday. The major indices have been down for two consecutive days:
- Dow Industrial Average -102.88 points after falling -249.13 points yesterday
- S&P index -18.25 points after falling -36.34 points yesterday
- NASDAQ index -93 points after falling -120.94 points yesterday
In the European equity markets, the major indices also trading up to the downside:
- German DAX -1.36%
- France's CAC -1.19%
- UK's FTSE 100 -0.66%
- Spain's Ibex -1.46%
in the US debt market, the yields are mixed with gains further at the curve:
In the European debt market, the benchmark 10 year yields are also trading higher:
