North American Summary and Highlights 25 April

April 25, 2025 7:30 PM UTC

Overview - In a fairly quiet day’s trading, the main move was a bounce in EUR/JPY. 

Canada Election: Liberal Victory Likely, Stable Policy Expected

April 25, 2025 4:21 PM UTC

Canada’s election takes place on Monday. A victory for the ruling Liberals looks likely, but polls are close enough to mean that a hung parliament or even a majority for the opposition Conservatives, while unlikely, is not to be ruled out. Should the Conservatives spring a surprise, a more concili

FX Weekly Strategy: April 28th - May 2nd

April 25, 2025 3:24 PM UTC

General risk recovery may be near an end
US GDP to be more significant than employment data
JPY correction likely to be near complete
EUR could benefit from relative GDP strength
CAD may be vulnerable if Liberals retain power
NOK has scope to return to end March levels

CBR Continues to Keep Key Rate Constant at 21% Despite Surging Inflation

April 25, 2025 1:56 PM UTC

Bottom Line: As we predicted, Central Bank of Russia (CBR) held the policy rate stable on April 25 for the fourth consecutive time to combat price pressures. CBR indicated in its written statement that CBR will maintain monetary conditions as tight as necessary to return inflation to the target

FX Daily Strategy: N America, April 25th

April 25, 2025 8:53 AM UTC

JPY might struggle despite rise in Tokyo CPI
GBP has scope to recover modestly
USD may struggle if University of Michigan confidence weakens again

U.S/China Trade Standoff: Odds Remain Towards Truce

April 25, 2025 7:09 AM UTC

  On balance, our baseline still remains a U.S./China trade deal (55-60%) being reached, given Trump deal instincts; China desire for a deal and the economic disadvantage of an economic cold war to the U.S. when it is trying to reset trade with all countries.  Timeline is Q4 2025 or H1 2026. An al

EZ HICP Preview (May 2): Headline Lower Again But Mainly Energy?

April 24, 2025 8:39 AM UTC

EZ HICP inflation is likely to fall back to the 2% target in flash April data, this six-month low would largely reflect a fall in fuel prices, but with services largely consolidating the clear fall seen last time around (Figure 1).  All of which would mean a stable core reading of 2.4% but where th

USD Rebalancing: Some to EM?

April 24, 2025 8:30 AM UTC

Some portfolios rotations towards EM assets will likely be evident, as we see the USD decline is now extending and broadening.  However, flows will likely be selective, both given underwhelming EM performance in the last 5-10 years and the uncertainty over how much Trump will reduce reciprocal tari

Brazil: Fiscal Result Improves but Structural Changes Remains in Doubt

April 23, 2025 5:57 PM UTC

Brazil’s fiscal data shows slight improvement, with a 0.1% primary deficit by February and a 2024 deficit in line with targets, excluding flood aid. The 2025 goal is a 0% deficit, but structural issues remain. Recent gains stem from reduced court-ordered payments and delayed hiring. However, risin

Preview: Due May 2 - U.S. April Employment (Non-Farm Payrolls) - Few signals for labor market weakness

April 23, 2025 3:31 PM UTC

We expect a 145k increase in April’s non-farm payroll, with 135k in the private sector, the latter equal to the Q1 average, with initial claims showing no signs of labor market weakness. We expect unemployment to correct lower to 4.1% after a March rise to 4.2%, and an in line with trend 0.3% incr

FX Daily Strategy: APAC, April 24th

April 23, 2025 3:20 PM UTC

PMIs expected to fall, but consensus is for the decline to be modest
USD might rally modestly on consensus data, but risk of bigger decline on weak numbers
Underlying USD negative tone remains hard to oppose given history of Trump’s first term
Equity market risks on the downside suggest JPY risks rem

South Africa’s Inflation Softened to a Five-Year Low with 2.7% YoY in March

April 23, 2025 1:50 PM UTC

Bottom Line: StatsSA announced on April 23 that annual South Africa’s inflation softened to a five-year low with 2.7% YoY in March, due to a drop in fuel, education and housing costs. Taking into account that the inflation rate is now below the lower band of South African Reserve Bank's (SARB) tar

BoE vs the (Weaker) Data

April 23, 2025 9:56 AM UTC

Amid what are now an ever broader array if indicators suggesting that the economy is stagnating, if not contracting the BoE has the opportunity to address this risks with three separate MPC speeches due later today.  Chief Economist Pill, Governor Bailey and Deputy Breeden can address the extent to

Eurozone Flash GDP Preview (Apr 30): The Calm Before the Storm that Surveys May Be Flagging?

April 23, 2025 9:18 AM UTC

Continuing a series of upside surprises, EZ GDP overshot both consensus and ECB expectations in Q4), albeit only after what was a cumulative 0.2 ppt upward revisions compared to the flash. We see a further rise in Q1 data (Figure 1), partly reflecting recent m/m increases in both manufacturing and s

FX Daily Strategy: N America, April 23rd

April 23, 2025 8:58 AM UTC

PMIs expected to fall, but consensus is for the decline to be modest
USD might rally modestly on consensus data, but risk of bigger decline on weak numbers
Underlying USD negative tone remains hard to oppose given history of Trump’s first term
Equity market risks on the downside suggest JPY risks rem

Trump Under Pressure

April 23, 2025 7:15 AM UTC

A deteriorating economic; volatile financial markets and weakening approval ratings are all putting pressure on the Trump administration to do trade deals.  However, Trump instincts means he still likes tariffs, while negotiations will not be quick with China restraints and non-tariffs list desired

Preview: Due April 30 - U.S. Q1 GDP - A modest decline, but less steep than trade data implies

April 22, 2025 4:32 PM UTC

Q1 US GDP is subject to exceptional uncertainty with calculations based on the components suggesting a significant decline. The Atlanta Fed nowcast shows an annualized fall of 2.2% largely due to a surge in imports. However with non-farm payrolls showing a 0.5% rise in aggregate hours worked such a

Foreign Official U.S. Treasury Holders: The Kindness of Strangers

April 22, 2025 7:30 AM UTC

Official holdings of U.S. Treasuries show a mixed picture with China, Brazil and Saudi Arabia well off peak holdings. Two drivers of some of these country flows are the peak in global central bank FX reserve holdings in 2021 and an increased holdings of other currencies in the last decade.  Neverth

FX Weekly Strategy: Europe, April 21st-25th

April 22, 2025 4:08 AM UTC

Markets to continue to react to implications of US tariffs
USD to remain under pressure as overweight positions are trimmed
Downside risks to PMI data suggest safe havens to be preferred…
…but some currencies can still recover from extreme levels triggered by the equity sell-off

North American Summary and Highlights 21 April

April 21, 2025 7:53 PM UTC

Overview - The USD was generally weaker as Trump continued to fuel fears over Fed independence. 

North American Summary and Highlights 17 April

April 17, 2025 7:45 PM UTC

Overview - With the ECB easing as expected, FX movements were modest but riskier currencies managed modest gains.