So, what’d I miss? It’s a quiet start to proceedings so far in the major currencies space, with narrow ranges prevailing for now. I mean when EUR/USD is trading within an 8 pips range, you sort of get the idea. Here’s a snapshot of things ahead of European trading:
USD/JPY is still the one to watch as it climbs to 151.70 levels, trading to its highest since October last year. Overall, the dollar has been relatively steady in the past week as it recovers some ground as Treasury yields also turn higher on Thursday and Friday last week.
Looking elsewhere across the market, equities are looking fairly sluggish after a strong finish to last week. S&P 500 futures are down 0.5% as investors weigh Moody’s downgrade to the US outlook here after the close on Friday.
But for now, the bond market continues to be the one in charge and even more so when we have key US data releases coming up later in the week. We will be getting US CPI data tomorrow and then PPI data and retail sales on Wednesday. Those will be the key risk events to watch out for during the week, alongside the Xi-Biden meeting on Wednesday – which I don’t expect to yield much breakthrough honestly.