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The U.S. dollar weakened in early European trade Thursday, retreating from a two-year high as the rally in U.S. bond yields paused for breath, ahead of a highly-anticipated European Central Bank meeting. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield traded at 2.684% early Thursday, retreating from Tuesday's high of 2.836% as weaker than expected U.S. core consumer inflation reined in some expectations of more aggressive Federal Reserve tightening to combat inflation later in the year. Still, most attention Thursday will be on the European Central Bank meeting later in the day, to see whether the policymakers feel the need to combat record inflation levels even in the face of a potential war-induced recession. As it stands the ECB plans to end its emergency bond buying at some point in the third quarter, with interest rates going up "some time" after that. This would be the fourth meeting in a row that the central bank has decided against raising interest rates after, under pressure from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, it halted a series of rate cuts at the end of last year.To get more news about
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The dollar lost ground against most major peers on Thursday, falling from two year peak hit overnight, as U.S. yields paused their march higher after U.S data released earlier in the week showed inflation lower than some analysts had feared. Even the battered yen had some respite, making a small recovery from a 20-year low hit overnight, though analysts reckoned the yen's tone remained weak. Otherwise, investors were awaiting a European Central Bank meeting later in the day, to see whether it was as hawkish as some of its global peers, after a spate of rate increases in recent days. However, while high, these were not quite as bad as some had feared, which observers said caused yields to pause. Other central banks reinforced the hawkish global mood ahead of the ECB meeting. Earlier in the day, the Bank of Korea, surprised markets with a rate hike, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore also tightened policy. The pause in yields meant the Japanese yen managed a small recovery in U.S. trade which continued into early Asia. It was last at 125.37 per dollar, having fallen to a 20 year low of 126.31 on Wednesday. More than three-quarters of Japanese firms say the yen has declined to point of being detrimental to their business, a Reuters poll found, with almost half of companies expecting a hit to earnings.
Gold was down on Thursday morning in Asia. However, the yellow metal was set for a second consecutive weekly gain as the war in Ukraine and broadening inflationary pressures give the safe-haven metal a boost. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield fell on Wednesday, following steady gains earlier in the month as investors bet that the U.S. Federal Reserve would aggressively tighten monetary policy to curb high inflation. In Asia Pacific, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) is expected to cut the one-year policy loans interest rate on Friday, its second time doing so in 2022 to date. PBOC is also expected to lower the reserve requirement ratio soon The Bank of Korea hiked its interest rate to 1.5% as it handed down its latest policy decision. Investors now await the European Central Bank's policy decision, due later in the day. Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine, ongoing since the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, continues. The U.S. on Wednesday said that it would send an additional $800 million in military assistance to Ukraine, ahead of the widely expected Russian attack on the eastern part of the country.
Oil prices slipped on Thursday amid thin trading volumes ahead of a public holiday, as traders weighed a larger-than-expected build in U.S. oil stocks against tightening global supply. Both contracts on Wednesday had shrugged off a large build in U.S. crude inventories to end the trading session roughly 4% higher The International Energy Agency on Wednesday warned that from May onwards roughly 3 million barrels per day of Russian oil could be shut-in due to sanctions or voluntary embargoes At the same time, major global trading houses are also planning to curtail crude and fuel purchases from Russia's state-controlled oil companies in May, Reuters reported on Wednesday. The probability of a EU ban on Russian oil being agreed may be almost zero, but no one will be able or wanting to say that clearly, Vandana Hari, founder of oil market analysis provider Vanda (NASDAQ:VNDA) Insights said. Despite signals that global supply disruption will persist, oil stocks in the U.S. rose by more than 9 million barrels last week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday, driven in part by releases from the nation's strategic reserves. Analysts in a Reuters poll had anticipated just an 863,000-barrel build. U.S. gasoline stocks fell 3.6 million barrels last week, far above anticipated levels, and distillate inventories also declined.
