From Marc to Market:
Overview: The foreign exchange market is becalmed today, with most of the major pairs trading in narrow ranges. The economic calendar is light and the North American session features benchmark revisions in US CPI and Canada's January employment figures. The US quarterly refunding supply has been absorbed without much fanfare. The dollar-bloc currencies and the Norwegian krone are firmer today. A bank forecast that the central bank will hike rates later this month is lifting the New Zealand dollar to new highs for the week near $0.6150. Emerging market currencies are narrowly mixed today. Most of the freely accessible emerging market currencies are lower, including the South African rand, Hungarian forint, and Turkish lira.
Japanese equities were mixed, and the Hang Seng slipped in the abbreviated session ahead of the holiday. Mainland shares that trade there were off almost 1%. Other large markets in the region settled higher. Europe's Stoxx 600 is slightly firmer after closed lower in the past two sessions. US index futures have a slightly upside bias after the S&P and Nasdaq set new record highs yesterday. The 10-year Japanese government bond yield rose a couple of basis points to 0.71%, a marginal new high for the week. European yields are also slightly firmer and setting the week's high today. The same is true for the 10-year US Treasury yield, which is posting above 4.16%. Gold is in a narrow $5 range above $2030. It settled slightly below $2040 last week. March WTI is extending its recovery into the fifth consecutive session. After tumbling by almost 7.4% last week, it is up nearly 5.7% this week. It is trading near $76.40 after setting a low on Monday around $71.40.
Asia Pacific
It is not just that the dollar is strong, but the Japanese yen is also weak....
....MUCH MORE
