Market Overview
Key Points:
• Ex President Trump pleads not guilty to 34 felony counts
• The RBA left interest rates unchanged yesterday as predicted to give the central bank more time to read the state of the economy.
• US manufacturing orders dropped to its lowest level since May 2020, the index falling from 47.7 to 46.3.
• Gold has jumped over 20% since the low of October 2022, climbing to 2020 per ounce this morning the highest level since March 2022
• ECB’s Makhlouf says monetary policy will need to be kept at a restrictive level to dampen demand. The ECB is pricing in a 50 point hike to 3.5% at the May 5th release.
• Bank of Tokyo’s Tenreyro still believes the BoJ needs to hike rates in order to meet inflation targets.
• Russia’s foreign minister Lavrov says the “west” is trying to drive a wedge between Russia and Chinese political relationships.
• The British Pound (GBP) was the strongest currency in March with the Australian Dollar (AUD) and the US Dollar (USD the worst performers. Read more