Financial Markets Daily Report18 September 2023
Financial markets ended the week digesting Thursday’s ECB rate decision. If investors initially interpreted Lagarde’s speech as implying a slightly dovish bias going forward, several ECB officials pushed back against such interpretations on Friday, pushing European sovereign bond yields up, peripheral spreads to widen, and a steepening of the curve.
- Financial markets ended the week digesting Thursday’s ECB rate decision. If investors initially interpreted Lagarde’s speech as implying a slightly dovish bias going forward, several ECB officials pushed back against such interpretations on Friday, pushing European sovereign bond yields up, peripheral spreads to widen, and a steepening of the curve.
- US Treasury yields also rose, albeit more modestly, as Friday’s data showed a mixed picture for the US manufacturing sector amid falling consumer inflation expectations, which should help reduce pressure on the Fed to raise rates at this week’s FOMC meeting. Against this backdrop, stock indices were mixed in Europe and posted losses in the US.
- Elsewhere, the euro took a breather and appreciated against the US dollar, while Brent crude oil price rose slightly to new highs for the year. On the monetary front, the focus this week will be on the FOMC meeting on Wednesday and the BoE and BoJ meetings on Thursday and Friday, respectively.