Financial Markets Daily Report 08 March 2024
Central bank communication preparing the ground to start easing the monetary policy stance soon was the main driver in yesterday’s session. In the euro area, the ECB kept interest rates unchanged and reinforced the data dependency approach, assuring that there is still some more progress to be done in domestic inflation.
- Central bank communication preparing the ground to start easing the monetary policy stance soon was the main driver in yesterday’s session. In the euro area, the ECB kept interest rates unchanged and reinforced the data dependency approach, assuring that there is still some more progress to be done in domestic inflation.
- Nevertheless, the decrease in GDP and inflation forecasts for 2024 and 2025, together with the recognition that there has been good progress in bringing down inflation, reinforce our expectation that the ECB might cut rates in June.
- In the US, Jerome Powell testified before the Senate and insisted that the Fed needs more confidence that inflation is heading towards 2% before cutting rates, but said that “we are not far from it”. In this context, yields edged down and equities rose across the board.
- Today the focus will be on the February employment report for the US and on the euro area final estimate for Q423 GDP.