New steps toward easing COVID restrictions in China have sparked rallies in China-sensitive markets this morning including a 3.1% pop for WTI Crude Oil, a 1.0% gain for Copper and a 3.4% jump for the Hang Seng. The Canadian and Australian Dollars are both up 0.4% on the resource rally while other currencies are quiet.
US index futures are up 0.3%-0.4% today with news of a prisoner exchange between the US and Russia perhaps helping to boost sentiment a bit. US weekly initial unemployment claims met expectations at 230K).
Yesterday, after raising its benchmark rate by 0.50% as expected, the Bank of Canada hinted that it may slow or pause its interest rate tightening program while maintaining its Quantitative Tightening program. Next week, four more central banks are meeting, the Federal Reserve Board, European Central Bank, Bank of England and Swiss National Bank which may further set the tone for global monetary policy heading into 2023. Ahead of these meetings a number of key inflation reports are due starting tomorrow morning with US producer prices (street 7.4% vs previous 8.0%) and Chinese consumer prices (street 1.0%), US U of Michigan consumer inflation estimate (previous 3.0%) and UK consumer inflation expectations (previous 4.9%).
