Themes

• General mood is “risk off”
• Fed’s Mester: Fed should act more quickly than prior tightening cycle
• Japanese National Core CPI +0.2% from talk of +0.3%

What’s Moving

As expected, a nice quiet end to the week on currencies in Asia today. Most of the majors held tight ranges. There was a little big of volatility in USD/JPY as Japanese CPI printed slightly weaker than expected, but current levels are near New York closing levels.

News wires reported some shelling by the Ukraine this morning, which helped support gold slightly, but the upside was short-lived, and we are holding slightly below opening levels. Oil prices are also slightly weaker today, amid very light volume trade.

Data tonight includes:

• U.K. Retail Sales (E: +1.1%)
• French Final CPI (E: +0.3%)
• Canadian Retail Sales (Headline E: -2.1%; Core E: -2.1%)
• Fed’s Waller, Williams and Brainard to speak