It’s been a quiet one in Europe as traders seem content to sit on their hands so far this week. It’s been a case of markets getting caught in a lull amid a lack of key economic data releases. And not even the usual month-end messiness is able to breathe life into things over the last two days.
In FX, major currencies are largely muted today with very little changes for the most part. It is only USD/JPY which is down slightly as noted here. Even then, the pair touched a low of 150.11 before bouncing slightly to 150.34 now and invalidating the near-term break earlier.
Besides that, the bond market continues to hold more sideways while equities are taking a breather after last week’s strong gains. So, there really isn’t much to work with for the time being.
Coming up later, we do have US durable goods orders to add to the mix. It isn’t the most crucial of economic releases but it is one of the few second-rate ones on the data docket this week. That could help to inject some volatility into things besides potential month-end flows this week.
Otherwise, this lull looks set to continue until we get to the first week of March. That is when central bank focus and the US non-farm payrolls will help to breathe some life into markets again.