Summary:

  • UK industrial data disappoints sending GBP subtly lower

  • Bank of America suggests that the crypto bubble may already be bursting

  • Investors wait for the US inflation print and FOMC minutes release

Newest developments in Syria theme weigh down on the European stock markets with just a few proving to be resilient. Norwegian krone is the top gainer along with JPY while AUD and CAD underperform. When it comes to EM currencies RUB and TRY are continuing to sink. Gold advances along with oil and silver. Investors await US inflation reading that will be publish few hours ahead of the FOMC minutes release.

The newest set of the industrial data from the UK economy turned out to be downbeat as manufacturing production shrank in February for the first time in 11 months. By and large, the report could be classified as a bearish one as all readings came in well below forecasts. On the flip side, the separate release showed the trade deficit declined appreciably at the same time, but the details are not so encouraging.

While some cryptocurrency pundits suggest that the bear market may have already come to an end, Bank of America researchers present a different point of view. According to their note released on Sunday Bitcoin is finally popping as the virtual currency has already fallen more than 60% since its peak reached in December last year.

T-Mobile is said to resume talks with Sprint Corp. over the possible merger. Let us recall the previous talks have failed in November as companies’ executives could not agree on how to share the control over combined entity. However, according to the Bloomberg sources the dispute over which previous negotiations failed have not been resolved in meantime thus we may see a repeated scenario once the talks advance to the phase of control sharing.

Tuesday turned out to be conducive to global equities which benefited from lowered frictions between the US and China following Xi Jinping speech. Wall Street managed to close the day with noticeable gains with the NASDAQ climbing over 2% being the best index. On top of that, improved risk sentiment propelled other risk-correlated assets such as Antipodean currencies and commodities.

Wednesday is probably the most interesting day of current week in terms of macroeconomic releases. The long-awaited US inflation print will be released as well as minutes from the first FOMC meeting with Powell as a head. At noon ECB President Mario Draghi will speak in Frankfurt.