What you need know for Monday, March 27 is as follows:
Financial markets appear to have started the new week on a good note after the previous week’s extremely erratic trading, with Euro Stoxx 50 beginning more than 1% higher and US stock index futures trading in positive territory. Germany’s IFO will publish statistics on business sentiment, and the US economic calendar will include the Dallas Fed Manufacturing Business Index. Investors will pay close attention to what the central bank says.
The 10-year US Treasury bond yield is holding onto minor gains at approximately 3.4% following Friday’s comeback, while the US Dollar Index moves in a narrow channel early on Monday morning just above 103.00. Prior to the weekend, a number of Fed policymakers spoke, but it doesn’t appear that their words have had much of an influence on rate forecasts. Markets are presently pricing in a close to 70% possibility that the FOMC would maintain the policy rate following the next meeting in early May, according to the CME Group FedWatch Tool.
According to Reuters, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. received equity rights in First Citizens BancShares Inc.’s stock worth up to $500 million over the weekend in exchange for buying all of SVB’s loans and deposits. The risk attitude appears to be improving early on Monday as a result of this event.
Even though the EUR/USD pair closed Friday in the negative zone, it nevertheless managed to gain last week. In the European morning, the pair continues to remain in a consolidation period below 1.0800. Germany’s IFO Current Assessment Index is anticipated to increase by 0.1 points, to 94.1 from 93.9 in February.
After a severe drop on Friday, GBP/USD was able to hold above 1.2200. At the time of publication, the pair was trading at about 1.2250, somewhat higher than the day before. At 1700 GMT, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey will give a speech.
At the start of the week, an uptick in market sentiment helped USD/JPY rise beyond 131.00. Data from Japan earlier in the day revealed that the Leading Economic Index edged up to 96.6 from 96.5 and the Coincident Index increased to 96.4 in January from 96.1.
Early on Friday, gold tried to reach $2,000 but sank quickly after failing to stabilise above that mark. Early on Monday, XAU/USD was last observed losing 0.5% on the day just around $1,970 as US yields began to rise again.
Despite having no discernible trend during the weekend, Bitcoin ended up increasing by more than 25% on a weekly basis. On Monday, BTC/USD trades in a constrained range under $28,000. On Sunday, Ethereum climbed towards $1,800 before losing momentum. As of the time of writing, the price of ETH/USD was $1,750, down more than 1% for the day.
