Quote:
‘A kiss can be a comma, a question mark or an exclamation point. That’s basic spelling that every woman ought to know.’ Mistinguett (1874-1956)
The News:
Fed drops the tightening bias at FOMC meeting yesterday.
The Numbers:
Greenwich Mean Time, with expectations and previous figures in brackets.
23:50 JP Feb Trade Balance 979B vs 1.9B Jan. 05:00 JP Feb Supermarket Sales-1.6% Y/Y versus –2.4% Jan.
07:50 JP Dec2006 Nationwide Land Prices Y/Y versus –2.8% 2006.
09:30 GB February Retail Sales (+0.1% to +2.0% M/M, +3.3% to +5.2% Y/Y, versus –1.8% and +3.3% January).
10:00 EZ13 January Trade Balance (-€7B to +€3.5B versus +€2.5B December).
10:00 EZ13 January Industrial New Orders (-3.2% to –0.3% M/M, +1.8% to +11.5% Y/Y, vs +2.8% and +1.6% Dec).
11:00 GB March CBI Industrial Trends Survey (-2 to +6 versus 4 February).
12:30 US Weekly Jobless Claims (313K to 330K versus 318K prior week).
13:20 US Fed’s Bernanke speaks at credit risk conference, Washington. Fed’s Kohn at same venue 17:30.
14:00 US February Leading Indicators (Mizuho Securities –0.8% versus +0.1% January).
16:00 US Fed’s Lacker speaks at conference, North Carolina. Fed’s Kroszner at same venue 16:30.
23:50 JP January All Industry Activity Index (Mizuho Securities +0.6% versus 0% December).
The Psychology:
Many currencies gaining against the US dollar, helping each other along.
The Risk:
Benchmark US Treasuries push towards pivotal 4.50% level.
Today’s most interesting chart:
US 2-year yield 2s/10s flat rather than inverted since August 2006.
