- Japan PM: We are not currently considering issuing state of emergency regarding covid
- There are reports of bombings in Yemen and Syria
- Australian December private sector credit +0.8% vs +0.9% prior
- Australia monthly inflation gauge for January: +0.4% % m/m vs 0.2% prior
- Japan December retail sales +1.4% y/y vs +2.7% expected
- Japan December industrial output -1.0% m/m vs -0.8% expected
- BOC's Macklem pushes back on suggestions he's not tough enough on inflation
- Portugal PM Costa on track for another election win, possible majority
- China manufacturing survey falls to worst level since the peak of the pandemic
- Atlanta Fed Pres. Bostic: Would be willing to lean into a 50 basis point hike if data supports it
Markets:
- Gold down $5 to $1786
- S&P 500 futures up 12 points to 4435
- US 10-year yields up 1.3 bps to 1.79%
- WTI crude oil up $1.07 to $87.90
- Hong Kong Hang Seng up 1.1%
- NZD leads, JPY lags
The week kicked off the same way Friday ended: With a positive tone. This time, moreso in FX than equities as the Australian and New Zealand dollars led the way.
A heavy holiday slate due to the lunar new year and a holiday in New Zealand took much of the life out of the market but there were still decent moves with AUD/USD rebounding from a 20-month low and back above 0.7000.
The bigger moves were in yen crosses as they universally marched higher despite Japanese 2-year yields rising to -0.05%, which is the highest since 2016.
Energy continues to be red hot as WTI opened a dollar higher and Brent hit $91. The larger move was in natural gas, which ran nearly 10% before paring the gain back to 7% on cold weather forecasts.
The weekend news had little effect on the market but I'll be watching closely to see how Bostic's comments are digested.
