Themes

· General mood is “risk off”

· U.S. Existing Home Sales near expectations at 6.2mln

· Fed’s Waller: The data is basically screaming for a 50bp rate hike

What’s Moving

European trade was fairly subdued on Friday, with position adjustment ahead of the weekend dominating that session. The U.S. session opened to hawkish comments from Fed’s Waller, which provided a strong bid to the USD with best gains seen against the Yen.

Despite the hawkish comments, U.S. stocks also closed firmer, while gold fell slightly.

Thoughts

With little major directional conviction on Friday, combined with today’s Japanese holiday (Vernal Equinox Day), we are expecting a fairly quiet session in Asia today to open up the week.

Combine this with a lack of local major data today and little news out of the Ukraine a session of position adjustment today is expected locally