Market movers today
It is a relatively quiet start on the data front to a week that brings us important inflation releases in the US on Tuesday and in the eurozone on Wednesday.
Today in the eurozone we get figures for the M3 money supply and loan growth. M3 growth continues to hover around the 5% level with 5.3% growth in March. We expect a similar figure for April. More interestingly, loan growth was very strong in March. Both households and NFCs saw increases of respectively EUR16bn and EUR18bn in loans, leading to yearly growth rates of 2.4% and 2.3%. The figures should have been good news for the ECB as they show how well the monetary accommodation is transmitting to the economy.
In Sweden, we are set to receive both the Riksbank April financial market statistics, including household credit growth, and Statistics Sweden’s April trade balance data.
Selected market news
The Asian equity markets have had a mixed session amid modest trading volume this morning as the US, the UK and Chinese mainland markets are closed today. Japan and South Korea saw modest gains, while others posted small losses.
The oil price fell modestly this morning as WTI dropped below USD50. In the fixed income markets 10Y US Treasuries are trading at the 2.25% level, while 10Y JGBs continue to be kept in a tight range around 0%.
San Francisco Federal Reserve president John Williams stated in a speech in Singapore this morning that the US economy is strong enough to withstand three to four hikes from the Federal Reserve. There will be more speeches from Federal Reserve members this week ahead of the Fed meeting in June.
