Financial Markets Daily Report31 March 2021
Investors continued to trade in a mixed mood in yesterday's session. Commodity prices declined across the board while the USD strengthened. Stocks were mixed, advancing in Asia and Europe but declining moderately in the U.S.
- Investors continued to trade in a mixed mood in yesterday's session. Commodity prices declined across the board while the USD strengthened. Stocks were mixed, advancing in Asia and Europe but declining moderately in the U.S.
- Sovereign yields were little changed in the U.S. but rose across euro area core and peripheral countries. ECB data showed that PEPP's gross purchases were roughly unchanged last week (€20.4bn after €20.9bn in the previous week).
- Data released this morning showed that Chinese manufacturing activity continued to expand in March (official manufacturing PMI up to 51.9 points from 50.6 in February). In Europe, economic sentiment continued to recover but remained below pre-pandemic levels (the euro area's ESI index rose to 101.0 points in March from 93.4 in February).
- Today the focus will be on the release of euro area inflation figures for March. Preliminary country-level data released yesterday point to an uptick in the area-wide figures (Germany's HICP inflation rose to 2.0% and Spain's CPI to 1.3%).