Fed ignored rising bond yields while the Bank of Japan decided to widen the target yield band by 5 basis points this week. However, these actions did not halt a surge in yields and bond sell-off pressured tech stocks at the end of the week. Will the coming days bring relief? Be sure to watch US100, DE30 and GBPUSD in the week ahead.
US100
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Create account Try a demo Download mobile app Download mobile appFed did not address an issue of rising yields during its meeting this week. Market seems to be happy with lack of tightening but moods quickly soured as Treasury yields resumed an upward move. Fed Chairman Powell will get another chance to soothe markets next week when he appears in Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday. Powell will testify along with Treasury Secretary Yellen on pandemic policies. Will US officials manage to halt rally in yields this time and allow US100 to catch a breath?
DE30
German DE30 outperformed other European blue chips indices this week and reached a fresh all-time high at 14,800 pts. Index pulled back in the second half of the week but scale of decline was smaller than in case of the US indices. Top European reports this week will be released on Wednesday - flash PMIs for March. French and German readings at 8:15 am GMT and 8:30 am GMT, respectively, will be the most closely watched ones. Both services and manufacturing gauges are expected to remain little changed month-over-month.
GBPUSD
GBPUSD has once again tested the 1.40 handle this week and has once again failed to break above it. A lot of data from the UK economy will be released next week, including labour market report (Tuesday, 7:00 am GMT), CPI data (Wednesday, 7:00 am GMT), PMIs (Wednesday, 9:30 am GMT) and retail sales (Friday, 7:00 am GMT). Bank of England signalled a slightly more upbeat outlook on the economy this week but will it be confirmed by the data?
