- US MBA mortgage applications w.e. 18 April -12.7% vs -8.5% prior
- Kremlin: Putin remains open to contacts with Europeans and Ukraine to find a settlement
- Positive Trump’s comments make traders pare back some agressive easing bets
- UK April flash services PMI 48.9 vs 51.5 expected
- Eurozone April flash services PMI 49.7 vs 50.5 expected
- Germany April flash manufacturing PMI 48.0 vs 47.6 expected
- France April flash services PMI 46.8 vs 47.6 expected
- China says US can’t say it wants a deal while exerting extreme pressure at the same time
- It’s a question of when and not if the market rhetoric will turn again
- FX option expiries for 23 April 10am New York cut
- And round and round we go..
- Economists now more split on next BOJ rate hike – poll
It’s been a quiet session in terms of news releases with just the Flash PMIs as the main highlights. Except for the UK, the data wasn’t as bad as someone would have expected but anyway the market’s focus remains on tariffs, so the reaction to the data was negligible.
The markets continue to digest the positive Trump’s comments. The stock market extended the rally to new highs, while gold reached new lows before pulling back. The US Dollar, on the other hand, remains mixed as the short term repricing in interest rates is not strong enough to reverse the bearish trend.
In the American session, the main highlight will be the US Flash PMIs. I expect the market to mostly ignore the data as usual, but if there’s a negative reaction to potentially weaker data, then we might see the market fading the weakness as the momentum from Trump’s comments is likely to continue unless we get some walk back.
This article was written by Giuseppe Dellamotta at www.forexlive.com.