 Overall market sentiment is slightly weaker entering into US session. While Russia showed videos of tanks leaving Crimea, NATO questioned de-escalation and said troop buildup was still going on. There is little reaction to much stronger than expected US retail sales. Nevertheless, Canadian Dollar is popped up by higher than expected, surging consumer inflation data. As for today, Canadian Dollar is the strongest one for now, followed by Aussie. Dollar is the weakest, followed by Euro and Sterling. Swiss Franc is quietly firming up slightly while Yen is mixed. Focus will turn to FOMC minutes, but eyes will still be on the Russia-Ukraine developments. Technically, attention will be on Swiss Franc pairs to gauge if nervousness on war is back. In particular, Break of 1.2465 support in GBP/CHF will at least indicate that rise from 1.2276 has completed at 1.2598. Deeper fall would be seen back to this support level. That would also retain near term bearishness for resuming larger down trend from 1.3070 through 1.2134 low at a later stage. In Europe, at the time of writing, FTSE is down -0.41%. DAX is down -0.16%. CAC is down -0.25%. Germany 10-year yield is down -0.051 at 0.262. Earlier in Asia, Nikkei rose 2.22%. Hong Kong HSI rose 1.49%. China Shanghai SSE rose 0.57%. Singapore Strait Times rose 0.52%. Japan 10-year JGB yield rose 0.0049 to 0.221. |
