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It’s a volatile time for central bank watchers, when comments from one man can flip the script in a moment.
Of course, the man responsible for the latest twist is a closely followed Fed governor and vice chair nominee, Philip Jefferson, but still, his comments led bets on the next Fed policy move on June 14 to retreat from a 70% chance for a quarter-point increase to just 38% at latest check.
Jefferson said he favoured “skipping” a rate hike at the upcoming meeting and that term has started to displace “pause” among Fed officials. Some Fed watchers believe this conveys a slightly more hawkish nuance.
Bets for ECB tightening have been knocked back, too, most recently by weaker-than-expected CPI data from Germany and France. That puts the spotlight on the euro-area preliminary CPI reading for May, due later in the day, which now seems likely to come in below forecasts.
The euro zone’s central bank will also release the summary of its meeting a month ago, when rates went up by a quarter point, and there will be fresh comments from ECB chief Christine Lagarde, who speaks at a banking conference in Hanover.
Traders currently foresee slightly more than 50 basis points of ECB tightening left before an expected peak in January.
Among a sizeable smattering of other European data in the day ahead are factory PMIs from the euro zone and many of its biggest members, including Germany and France, as well as from Britain and the United States.
In a positive prologue to those, Chinese factory activity posted a surprise swing to growth last month. Japan’s reading also rebounded.
Investors seemed to be in a good mood across most of Asia, pushing stocks higher with encouragement from those more dovish Fed bets and relief at the U.S. House of Representatives passing a bill to suspend the debt ceiling – and avert a catastrophic default – with a big bipartisan majority. That’s a strong indication that the bill could get through the Senate before the weekend.
Key developments that could influence markets on Thursday:
German retail sales
UK house prices and mortgage lending
Euro zone, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, UK and U.S. manufacturing PMIs
Italy and euro zone unemployment rate
U.S. ADP jobs report and weekly jobless claims
U.S. ISM manufacturing
