The View From The Tower

Overnight Snapshot

 
The Day Ahead

0730hrs UK         UK The Bank of England’s Ben Broadbent speaks in Sydney
0830hrs UK         NO Norges Bank Governor Olsen speaks in Stavanger
1000hrs UK         EU Industrial Production (est 0.13%mom/3.55%yoy vs previous -1.0%/2.7%)
1230hrs UK         EU ECB Publishes the minutes of the March Policy meeting
1315hrs UK         EU The ECB’s Benoit Coeure speaks in Paris
1330hrs UK         US Weekly Jobless Claims (est 231K vs previous 242K)
1330hrs UK         US Import Price Index (est 0.14%mom/3.75%yoy vs previous 0.4%/3.5%)
1330hrs UK         US Export Price Index (est 0.13%mom vs previous 0.2%)
1600hrs UK         EU Bundesbank Board Member Andreas Dombret speaks in Frankfurt
1630hrs UK         NO Norges Bank Deputy Governor Nicolaisen speaks in Oslo
1700hrs UK         EU The ECB’s Jens Weidmann speaks in Berlin
2000hrs UK         UK Bank of England Governor Mark Carney speaks in Toronto
2200hrs UK         US Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari speaks in Minneapolis
 
US earnings releases today include Delta Air Lines and BlackRock
 
The Day So Far….

STOCKS: Wall Street shares dipped yesterday as the prospect of military action against Syria raised worries over geopolitical risks to the US economy. Minutes from the Fed policy meeting also appeared to reflect a more hawkish view on interest rate increases as the 25bps rise last time was voted for unanimously. The declines followed two days of gains as trade war fears eased. After early gains, the S&P500 slipped back to close down 14.68 points at 2642.19, the Dow traded negative all day, ending 218.55 lower at 24189.45, whilst the Nasdaq100 hovered around the unchanged mark before slipping down 32.429 points to close at 6583.444
Regional stocks lacked direction, pointing to exhaustion following the slew of geopolitical headlines that have been apparent in recent sessions. - The Nikkei 225 went into the lunch break virtually unchanged, albeit a little lower as the industrial sector took the biggest hit, with materials not far behind. At the other end of the spectrum the consumer staples sector outperformed, with the health care sector also printing healthy gains. - The Hang Seng added 0.1% with energy the clear outperformer on a sectoral basis, while consumer discretionary names lagged, with traders seemingly ignoring the USDHKD's test of the upper
limit of its trading band. However the gains were eroded as the lunch break approached  and further losses appeared in the afternoon session with the last seen print down 0.5%. China's Shanghai Composite underperformed losing ground steadily through the day after opening close to unchanged - Australia's ASX 200 lost around 0.25%, although some of the large miners posted decent enough gains, with energy also edging higher. The industrial sector weighed, with real- estate names also taking a notable hit. - US index futures printed modest gains, with the e-mini S&P adding a couple of points & the mini Dow trading just slightly positive after early gains of over 100 points.
US TSYS: Treasuries have operated in a restricted manner, with T-Note futures trading in a 3-tick range. - The FOMC meeting minutes (released Wednesday)
showed that "almost all" wanted to raise rates at the meeting, with a couple pointing to the benefits of waiting for a rise in inflation. Wage gains were deemed moderate, while the risk of a trade war was noted by "many" participants. While the release offered little in the way of surprises, the minutes did signal a greater degree of confidence in the rate path amid firming inflation, with no Fed officials seeing the risk to their inflation forecasts tilted to the downside. The space failed to make fresh session lows on the back of the minutes as geopolitics underpinned and the market ignored the soft 10-Year Note auction. - White & red Eurodollar futures are more or less unch. vs. settlement.
OIL: Geopolitical worry has underpinned the space in recent sessions. WTI added $0.35 to trade at $67.10, while Brent added $0.25 to trade at $72.35.
GOLD: The yellow metal stuck to a tight range, trading above $1,350/oz, with little in terms of fresh geopolitical developments
FOREX: The majors stuck to a tight range against the USD in overnight dealing as markets consolidated with a lack of fresh fundamental information apparent. - As
a result the major crosses trade around familiar levels, with the DXY virtually unchanged. This comes after Wednesday's release of the minutes from the most recent FOMC MonPol meeting, which spared the USD of another drubbing as they revealed that the central bank was more confident on the outlook for inflation.

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