From Marc Chandler at Bannockburn Global Forex:
Overview: The US dollar begins the new week mostly firmer. The dollar-bloc currencies and Scandis are the weakest. Sterling and the euro are little changed, while the continued drop in the US 10-year yield has helped lift the yen by nearly 0.5%. Emerging market currencies are mixed as well. A handful of Asian currencies, including the Chinese yuan, are higher. The Turkish lira is also firmer, after falling nearly 4% over the past two weeks. Russia, which apparently has disappointed US President Trump, who has threatened secondary tariffs its oil if it does not accept the cease fire with Ukraine, has seen the ruble soften today.
The knock-on impact from the US tariff offensive is taking a toll on equities. Japan's Nikkei 225 stumbled by 4%, as did Taiwan's Taiex. South Korea's Kospi dropped 3%. Australia's ASX 200 was off 1.75%. The Hang Seng lost 1.3% and China's CSI 300 fell 0.7%. India is off less than 0.5%. Europe's Stoxx 600 is down for its fourth consecutive session and its nearly 1.3% loss is greater than the loss of the past two sessions put together. It gapped lower today and US index futures are poised to do so too. Some of the flows out of equities is finding a haven in the government bond markets. The 10-year JGB yields fell five basis points to 1.48%, while European benchmark rates are mostly 2-4 bp lower. The 10-year yield Treasury is below 4.20%. It settled only once since last December below 4.20%, and that was on March 3. Gold jumped to a new record near $3128. It settled around $3011 a week ago. May WTI is firm slightly below $70 but has been in a $68.80-$70.15 range today....
....MUCH MORE
