Market movers today
We expect Norges Bank to stay on hold at today’s meeting (in line with consensus), as it is one of the interim meetings without a monetary policy report or press conference, just a press release, see page 2 for more details.
In Sweden, Statistics Sweden is publishing average house prices for March at 09:30 CET. Note that Maklarstatistik published housing price data for April earlier this morning.
US-China trade talks continue today, as China’s top trade negotiators are in Washington today and tomorrow. While we previously thought there was a high likelihood of concluding the negotiations this week, uncertainty has risen. The two sides are blaming each other for the current deadlock and it is a real risk Trump is going to raise tariff rates tomorrow, as officially notified by the Trump administration. For more see our preview .
In the US , we have a few Fed speeches today including Powell’s opening remarks at Fed Community Development Conference. We do not think the Fed is going to change policy signals, as it is firmly on hold for now.
Selected market news
The uncertainty regarding a trade deal between the US and China continues to dominate the global financial markets. Trump declared during the night that China’s leaders broke the deal that they are negotiating and stated that there was nothing wrong in taking in USD 100bn in duties.
The Asian equity markets are down this morning, Italy continues to be under pressure with widening spreads to core-EU etc. However, we did see a lower demand at the 10Y US Treasury auction yesterday, as the decline in US Treasury yields has dampened demand at the auction yesterday.
In UK, the talks between the Conservatives and Labour continue and both parties say that progress is being done. However, the markets are not convinced as GBP remains weak. See more below in the FX section.
