Market Update – March 22 – Stocks build a rally ahead of Banks!

Stocks Rallied! Asian stock markets have followed Wall Street higher, GER40 and UK100 futures are also posting slight gains, while US futures are narrowly mixed as markets wait for the FOMC announcement later today. Even though concern over global financial stability is easing and risk appetite has improved, with central banks expected to tighten policy further there is still some nervousness ahead of the announcement, as fears that aggressive action will add further pressure continue to weigh.

UK inflation surged higher ahead of BoE.

The data came in much higher than anticipated, with CPIH rising to 9.2% y/y from 8.8% y/y, while CPI hit 10.4% y/y. Most worrying for policymakers will be the jump in core inflation – from 5.8% y/y to 6.2% y/y. The data will likely force the BoE’s hand tomorrow and another rate hike looks much more certain now than before the release. 

  • FXUSDIndex has corrected to 102.75 as Treasury yields declined. EUR corrected to 1.0760 but still in an upchannel. JPY weakened for a 2nd day, while it is now holding at 132.50. Sterling jumped after data to 1.2283
  • USDCAD popped to 1.37 on the cooler Canadian Inflation, from a 1.3654 low, but has dipped back to 1.3662 currently.
  • Stocks – US100 advanced 1.6%, the US500 is up 1.3% and the US30 added 316 points, +1%. First Republic shares surged 29% while KeyCorp, US Bancorp, Truist Financial and Comerica picked up about 9% each by the close. Those five were also the top gainers on the US500 for the day.

  • Commodities – USOil – has snapped a two day run higher and is currently at $69.50.
  • Gold – Evening Star Formation ? Gold slumped back to $1934 as yields on the 10-year government bond jumped Tuesday, making it more appealing to hold Treasuries than Gold.
  • Cryptocurrencies BTC holds around $28K highs.

Today ECB Lagarde speech, FOMC began its meeting, 25 bp hike expected, focus on dot plot!

Biggest FX Mover @ (07:30 GMT) GBPCHF(-0.56%). Jumped to 1.1334 reversing half of yesterday’s losses! MAs aligned higher, MACD histogram & signal line remain negative, RSI 57 and rising.

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Andria Pichidi

Market Analyst

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