The Euro witnessed a mixed start to the week, initially having received a boost following the weekend’s German SPD’s vote in favor of the coalition deal. However, the upside was short-lived as sentiment soured on the Italian election’s projected outcome of a hung parliament, with both the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and the far-right League party outperforming in the first exit polls.
Meanwhile, the US dollar found some love against the Antipodeans, as downbeat Chinese Caixin services PMI weighed down on both the Aussie and Kiwi. The USD/JPY pair, however, traded with sizeable losses amid risk-off market profile, reflected by negative Asian equities and Treasury yields.
Among the commodities, gold prices remained well bid near $ 1330 levels while both crude benchmarks also traded higher amid the Libyan Sharara oilfield shutdown news and ahead of the OPEC meeting with the US shale firms.
Main topics in Asia
European Politics in focus start of week: Italian election / German coalition risks
Italy’s ruling centre-left Democratic Party admits defeat - The Guardian
Berlusconi's right-wing coalition leads Italy's election: RAI state television
China's Caixin services PMI eases in Feb, misses expectations
Trump trade advisor sees business exemptions to tariffs - Reuters
New Zealand Treasury - there is still some spare capacity in the labour market
China to cut import tariff on auto, some consumer goods: NDRC - Bloomberg
Key Focus ahead
The European calendar sees a busy start to a fresh week, with the final services PMI reports from the Euro area economies due on the cards ahead of the UK services PMI and Eurozone Sentix Investor Confidence. Meanwhile, the US docket offers a set of services PMI reports from Markit and ISM ahead of the FOMC member Quarles speech.
EUR/USD bearish bets lose value despite prospects of hung parliament in Italy
GBP/USD looks weaker than ever ahead of UK services PMI release
Key events for the week ahead - Nomura
RBA to be a non-event this week, or? - Westpac
Australia Jan retail trade to reverse most of the previous fall - ANZ
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