Economic activity data and central bank decisions centered the stage in yesterday’s session. On the one hand, the Bank of England kept interest rates unchanged and hinted that the next move could be a rate cut, as there have been “further encouraging signs that inflation is coming down”. The Swiss National Bank cut rates by 25bp to 1.50%.
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The future path of central bank official interest rates continued to be the main driver in financial markets, as investors reacted to the US Federal reserve meeting and to several ECB members’ speeches.
In yesterday’s session monetary policy continued to take center stage in financial markets. Investors positioned themselves ahead of today’s US Federal Reserve meeting (where no change in interest rates is expected and the focus will be placed on the dot plot) and weighed comments from ECB officials.
Markets kicked off the week with a tranquil session ahead of a week full of central bank meetings, starting with the Bank of Japan today, and continuing with the Fed and the BoE later on. In this context, sovereign bond yields slightly rose across the board, while equities advanced modestly in the US led by tech stocks, and were mixed in the euro area.
In the last session of the week, yields on sovereign bonds continued to increase, modestly, as investors’ expectations on official interest rates continued to be revised to the upside. In particular the probability of observing the US Federal Reserve cutting rates in June or earlier stands currently at 63% (96% earlier in the month).
Macro data releases in the US yesterday gave investors mixed signals about the state of the economy. Higher-than expected producer price index (1.6% yoy vs 1.2% expected) and lower-than-expected retail sales (0.0% vs 0.4% expected) warned about sticky inflation and an economic slowdown, but unemployment benefit requests surprised to downside.
Central bank communication preparing the ground to start easing the monetary policy stance soon was the main driver in yesterday’s session. In the euro area, the ECB kept interest rates unchanged and reinforced the data dependency approach, assuring that there is still some more progress to be done in domestic inflation.
In yesterday’s session, investors traded cautiously ahead of today’s ECB monetary policy meeting, where we expect official interest rates to remain unchanged (depo and refi at 4.00 and 4.50%, respectively) and a continuation of the data dependency approach.
In yesterday's session, investors traded cautiously amid mixed economic data releases. In the US, the services ISM declined from 53.4 to 52.6 in February, with the prices paid subcomponent declining from 64.0 to 58.6,. easing analysts' concerns of a further spike in inflationary pressures.
In the first session of the week investors traded cautiously as they wait for new messages coming from central bank officials on the interest rate path ahead. In particular, all eyes are on the ECB Governing Council meeting on Thursday, where the ECB is expected to keep rates unchanged and reiterate the data dependency approach for 1H2024.
In the last session of the week, investors traded with a moderately optimistic tone amid economic data releases that offered mixed signals on the monetary policy path ahead. On the one hand, the US ISM manufacturing index fell from 49.1 to 47.8 (49.5 expected), with employment and new orders subcomponents decreasing.
US January PCE deflator came in line with expectations (2.4% yoy down from 2.6% the previous month), and euro area countries’ CPI did not surprise either (Germany: 2.5% yoy, France: 2.9% yoy, Spain: 2.8% yoy), boosting markets’ expectations of a first interest rate cut starting in June and July.
Yesterday’s session in financial markets was a quiet one without any major macroeconomic data releases and with the Q4 2023 corporate earnings season nearing its end. All eyes remain attentive to today’s release of January’s US PCE deflator, the Fed’s favored inflation gauge, and some euro area countries’ CPI.
Tuesday was a mixed bag for financial markets, with macro data and earnings releases on the agenda ahead of today’s highly anticipated FOMC meeting.
In yesterday’s session investors took note of the different central bank speeches offered by Fed and ECB officials. In general, policymakers would like to see more evidence that inflation is decisively in the route to reach 2% before easing the monetary policy stance.
In a session with no big economic data releases, except for the -1.1% m/m December retail sales in the euro area, investors reassessed their expectation on the upcoming central bank interest rate cuts.
In the first session of the week, investors continued to reassess their expectations on the upcoming easing of the ECB and Fed’s monetary policy stance. The January PMI and ISM data releases showed a stronger-than-expected start of 2024 that decreased further the probabilities of seeing the first rate cut in April and May for both central banks.
Investors’ mood was mixed yesterday as they grappled with a raft of data. In the US, Treasury yields fell again despite the Fed's hawkish tone on Wednesday, weighed down by concerns about some regional US banks and higher than expected jobless claims, although Q4 productivity and labour cost data were encouraging for disinflationary momentum.
The FOMC kept US interest rates on hold, saying it needed more confidence that inflation was moving toward 2% on a sustainable basis before cutting rates. Powell later stated that the FOMC was unlikely to have such confidence by March.
The ECB governing council left interest rates unchanged and Lagarde remarked how core inflation is on a downward path and wage growth has stabilized. These remarks pushed investors to assign a 90% probability of an interest rate cut in the ECB’s next meeting in April, and pushed down sovereign bond yields.