Markets are looking for confirmation from the European Central Bank that a June rate cut is really coming, though oil is on the rise again, clouding the inflation picture - and giving policy makers in Canada, New Zealand and Korea food for thought.Open this photo in gallery:
The question is how explicit policymakers will be about June, given they want to review first-quarter wage growth figures that will be released in May.Oil rig pumpjacks, also known as thirsty birds, extract crude from the Wilmington Field oil deposits area near Long Beach, California July 30, 2013.Rising geopolitical turmoil and supply disruption in a number of production hot-spots are pushing oil prices back towards $90 a barrel for the first time in months.
All this complicates life for those countries’ monetary authorities, which have either intervened, or threatened to intervene, to prop up their currencies to prevent a vicious-circle type of pickup in inflation.Signs of JP Morgan Chase Bank, Citibank and Wells Fargo & Co. bank are seen in this combination photo from Reuters files.Market fixation on U.S. monetary policy will be somewhat diverted in the coming week, as quarterly reports from major banks kick off earnings season.
JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo all report results on April 12. Delta Air Lines and BlackRock are among other notable companies set to provide quarterly updates in the days ahead.A man walks by monitors showing the Shanghai Composite index, from left, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index and the New York Dow Jones Industrial Average at a securities firm in Tokyo, Monday, June 26, 2023.
These will be important litmus tests of consumer appetite. The consumer price index meanwhile will be key since the first rise for six months in the previous batch of data is what helped Chinese stocks scale post-November peaks, though figures were potentially skewed by Lunar New Year holidays.Governor of the Bank of Canada Tiff Macklem walks outside the Bank of Canada building in Ottawa on June 22, 2020.