Market Update

The People’s Bank of China kept its key interest rate unchanged in a surprise move, despite expectations of more stimulus, as Beijing is currently suffering from a spike in coronavirus cases. The People’s Bank of China said it kept the one-year medium-term loan rate unchanged at 2.85%. China is currently …

The US dollar holds firmly up, giving up some of its recent gains ahead of the close as speculative interest booked some profits ahead of the Good Friday holiday.Economic Data The US Commerce Department on Thursday said that retail sales rose a seasonally adjusted 0.5% in March from a month …

Cleveland Fed President and FOMC member Loretta Mester said on Thursday that the Fed aims to reduce policy accommodation at the pace necessary to control inflation whilst also sustaining economic activity.Mester added that the Fed aims to bring demand into better balance with supply, whilst also sustaining the health of …

Major US equity indices showed mixed performance on Thursday, with tech stocks underperforming as US yields soured. Investors received another update on the recovery in the jobs market. The number of people seeking unemployment benefits ticked up last week, according to the Labour Department, but remained at a historically low …

At 1.3069, the GBP/USD pair is attempting to correct the London sell-off that followed the European Central Bank announcements that sank the Euro and enabled the embattled US dollar to bounce back. The pound was caught up in the flows and extended a fall from a high of 1.3146 to …

The US Commerce Department on Thursday said that retail sales rose a seasonally adjusted 0.5% in March from a month earlier. That was a tad less than the 0.6% gain that economists polled by The Wall Street Journal were looking for, but there were also revisions to the previous two …

The preliminary estimate of the University of Michigan’s (UoM) Consumer Sentiment Index for April rose to 65.7 from 59.4 last month, above the expected reading of 59.0, data released on Thursday showed. The Consumer Expectations Index was also significantly stronger than expected at 64.1 versus forecasts for a reading of …

The GBP/USD pair has dipped back under 1.3100 as it weakens in tandem with the euro post-dovish ECB policy announcement. The pair remains at risk of falling to sub-1.3000 levels amid the risk of more BoE/Fed policy divergence.Though the currency hasn’t been weighed as badly as its euro counterpart, the …

The USD/CAD pair staged a goodish intraday bounce from over a one-week low set earlier this Thursday. Weaker oil prices undermined the CAD and extended support amid resurgent USD demand. Bulls seemed rather unaffected by the disappointing release of the US Retail Sales figures.The USD/CAD pair recovered nearly 70 pips …

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Thursday that the IMF will be downgrading the outlook for global growth for both 2022 and 2023, reported Reuters. She cited inflation, tightening of financial conditions and frequent Covid-19 lockdowns in China as weighing on activity. Additional Takeaways:• Since the …