Themes

• General mood is “risk off”
• U.S. Retal Sales stronger than expected at 3.8% from 2.1% talk
• U.S. Inventories data hurts oil prices

What’s Moving

U.S. markets opened to a stronger than expected Retail Sales print, but the movements were kept muted amid continued concerns about the Russian/Ukrainian standoff. The CAD was supported over the day by a firmer than expected local CPI data print.

The general drift over the overnight session was to light USD weakness as players took profits on recent longs. Oil prices fell after a better-than-expected U.S. Inventory number, while gold saw good two-way trading.

Thoughts

Trading locally today should remain fairly subdued after the largely sideways interest in overnight dealings. There is some decent local data on tap however, which may have an impact.

Data today includes:

• Japanese Core Machinery Orders (E: -2.0%)
• Australian Employment Numbers (Employment Change E: 0.0, Rate E: 4.2%)

Pivot Points