Today we have President Lagarde of the ECB and FOMC member George speaking within the day. Private employment figures are set to come out as well as Q4 GDP for the U.S which is expected to reach 7.1%.
With peace comes risk…
The euro stole the headlines over the past day with reports coming in that there has been overall positive progress with peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. Reports say that Russia has vowed to reduce northern Ukraine attacks as well as reduce military personnel in Kyiv.
Moments later we saw the euro rocket against the dollar and the pound pushing rates past 1.110 on the euro-dollar and below 1.1820 on the pound euro. Any form of progress announced in Ukraine will fuel the ongoing call for rates to hit 1.15 on GBP/EUR which seems ever more likely upon revision.
The pound struggled to hold ground against the dollar as a strong number of job vacancies was recorded for the month of February, however, the pound managed to close shy of 1.31.
It wasn’t just the euro that felt capital inflows, major equity markets across Europe, UK and U.S closed higher with investors betting on further positive talks adding a sense of clarity to the market. Oil continues to retreat as Shanghai steps up restriction rules ahead of the OPEC meeting later this week.
What to look out for this week
We have our eyes on the public employment figures being released this Friday, the reading could either fuel optimism that the Fed can lower the 7.9% inflation whilst keeping the employment market tight or allow fears to seep in.