Major equity indices in the Europe kick started the week’s session in postive territory. With Yellen’s comments last Friday, re-iterating that rate hikes in the coming months would probably be apropriate – equities reflected a risk-on sentiment. US markets were closed on Monday in obeservance of Memorial Day.
Also helping european sentiment in yesterday’s session was a better than expected French Q1 GDP reading, and improved German CPI.
The US Dollar enjoyed a 2-day rally after Yellen’s comments last Friday, the US Dollar index (DXY) briefly touched 95.97 throughout yesterday’s session but is now currently trading at 95.65.
Despite Friday’s drop to lows of 1.1109 for the EURUSD, Monday was mostly a positive day for the euro and saw the currency pair resume above 1.11 levels after briefly making lows of 1.1097.
USDJPY reflected mostly the buck’s strength these last two days but the JPY is fighting back after some better than expected Industrial Production data for April.
The highlight for today’s economic calendar goes to the German unemployment and EZ CPI estimate this morning. Things also get interesting this afternoon with Canadian GDP, US Consumer Confidence and PCE core.
