Themes

• General mood is “risk off”
• Fed’s Bullard: I think we should frontload the removal of accommodation
• ECB’s Legarde: There are signs that bottlenecks are starting to ease

What’s Moving

An interesting day in markets, with hawkish comments from Fed’s Bullard, coupled with dovish comments from ECB’s Legarde combining to support the USD against the EUR. Early U.S. saw a report that Russian troops stationed on the Ukrainian boarder were mobilizing which added to the USD bid and also supported gold and oil into the overnight close.

The CAD was supported by a gain in oil prices, while the Yen, initially bid up, gave back gains into the New York close.

Thoughts

There is a little local data today but focus and eyes will remain on newswires to see what happens in the Ukraine. Asian session data today sees:

• Japanese Preliminary GDP (E: -1.3%)
• Australian RBA Monetary Policy Meeting Minutes
• Japanese Revised Industrial Production (E: -1.0%)

Pivot Points