Financial Markets Daily Report20 February 2023
In the last session of the week, investors digested the hawkish comments offered by key central bank officials in the US Federal Reserve and ECB. In the former, Michelle Bowmen and Thomas Barkin signaled that interest rates will need to raise further but warned against reading too much into January’s retail sales and employment data.
- In the last session of the week, investors digested the hawkish comments offered by key central bank officials in the US Federal Reserve and ECB. In the former, Michelle Bowmen and Thomas Barkin signaled that interest rates will need to raise further but warned against reading too much into January’s retail sales and employment data.
- In the ECB, Isabel Schnabel said that the central bank will need to act more forcefully if the economy’s reaction to its tightening was weaker than in the past; Villeroy de Galhau pointed to the peak of interest rates before September.
- In this context, yields on sovereign bonds edged lower in both sides of the Atlantic while equities declined in the US and were mixed in Europe. In commodity markets, the price of European natural gas declined below $50 for the first time in 17 months and brent prices fell too.
- This week the focus will be on the February PMI (Tue.) and on the final January HICP figures in the euro area (Thu.).