Today is another hectic day in the financial markets, with the typical-for-Thursday flood of economic reports.
To begin with, the United Kingdom’s construction PMI report came in at 53.3, indicating a higher growth than forecasted.
Meanwhile, the eurozone offered mixed reports today: the unemployment rate was lower than expected at 8.1% in January, but retail sales were significantly below the forecast at -6.4%.
Later today we expect the initial and continuing jobless claims reports from the United States, together with factory orders.
In addition, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will have his last press conference until the next policy meeting of the regulator. Powell will most likely repeat that despite the increase in bond yields and inflation, the Fed is not ready to change its stance on monetary policy in the foreseeable future.
Speaking of bond yields, where it comes to US Treasuries, they have continued to grow and are now close to 1.5%. This has become the driver for more tech sell-off and a drop in all major tech-heavy stock indices such as the Nasdaq 100 in the US and tech indices in China, Europe, and the United Kingdom.
Industrial metals, which have been among the best performing assets in the past year, are also currently off the recently reached maximums amid the sell-off and the increased interest in bonds.
A major highlight today is a crucial OPEC+ meeting, where the oil-exporting countries will decide what quotas to follow in April. Saudi Arabia is currently unilaterally keeping its supply of oil lower than the previous agreement to support the oil market.
Thanks to massive improvements in the coronavirus situation in the United States in the past month, it’s likely that the oil market could do with a bit more supply. However, an increase of more than 1.5 million barrels per day is going to be too much, according to the experts.
