US stocks are showing some weakness especially in the NASDAQ index. The Dow industrial average however is seeing a flow into the relative safety of those cyclical stocks.
All main metrics were expected to be unchanged and that is the case. Purchases were in focus and the extension of the APP program is not as large as some were talking about (€50 billion). All eyes will be on the press conference now to see why those amounts were chosen and why Q2 and Q3 was the time to implement them. EURUSD slightly higher at the moment as this is arguably more hawkish than the meeting could have been with a mild APP extension. All ears and eyes to the presser now.
A weaker reading and miss on all the prints from France and a miss on the composite reading from Germany (due to a miss in services) led to expectations of a weaker print here. All due to the rising COVID cases in Europe.
The COVID case rise in the eurozone will be a cloud over the ECB later. Hard to see anything but a dovish response from the ECB especially given the prospect of Omicron uncertainty. They may take a similar line to the BoC.
The question today was. ‘will the SNB’ stay cool on the rising CHF. The answer is yes. Pretty much the same
Remember when this was a major market concern? Serious risks look to be cushioned by China, but this is still some hefty fall out for Evergrande to face. China’s pivot to socialism will lend itself to a ‘bail out’ policy as it shuns some free market thinking, so current politics help out a lot here.
French PMI’s soon up, but shouldn’t move the dial too much as we have the ECB meeting later today
Data earlier this week showed consumer price inflation jumping higher more than expected, and hitting a 10 year high of 5.1% in November. Wages and employment gaining are also factors the Babk must cotned with today.
Prior to the CPI data bets on a BoE rate hike had fallen away given the rapidly rising case load and restrictions (re) imposed.
Back on December 3 a key MPC member, Michael Saunders, one of two members of the nine on the BoE Monetary Policy Committee who voted to raise Bank Rate to 0.25% in November, said there “could be particular advantages in waiting to see more evidence” of Omicron’s impact.
Stay tuned!
All credibility of Turkey’s central bank and finance ministry has been lost.
The lira (TRY) has been free falling.
