- IMF lowers 2022 global GDP forecast to 3.6% from 4.4%
- US March housing starts 1.793m vs 1.745m expected
- Canadian March housing starts 246K vs 250K expected
- Fed's Evans says he's comfortable with two 50 bps hike this year
- Fed's Evans: Good reason to think economy will do very well as rates rise
- More Evans: Still too early to think inflation challenges are changing, but they could be.
- Fed's Bostic: It's important we get to neutral as expiditously as possible
- Atlanta Fed GDP Now estimate 1.3% vs 1.1% prior
- SNBs Jordan: There could be some risk to price stability in Switzerland
- German Chancellor Scholz: We will continue to finance Ukraine militarily and financially
- New Zealand GDT price index -3.6%
- Macron continues to extend polling lead
Markets:
- Gold down $31 to $1947
- WTI crude down $5.35 to $102.26
- US 10-year yields up 8 bps to 2.94%
- S&P 500 up 73 points to 4462
- AUD leads, JPY lags
The mood in markets as New York rolled in could only be described as neutral with stock futures flat. Housing starts weren't a market mover and stocks opened flat.
That changed after the IMF downgrade. Perhaps it was a reminder that slowing growth could also restrain inflation and that might keep the Fed from tightening beyond neutral. That thinking though is undermined by the jump in Treasury yields.
In turn, that pop added gasoline to the yen inferno. After a series of gains in yen crosses, this was the largest one yet and what could be capitulation. USD/JPY added 200 pips and AUD/JPY added even more in percentage terms. The latter broke out from its recent range.
Stocks finished strong but Netflix reported after the bell and flagged a drop in subscribers, leading to an 18% drop in shares and a weigh on the Nasdaq in the post-market.
