Minneapolis Fed & ECB Executive speeches today. What to expect?

Today’s Highlights by FXGiants | 22.05.2017

Fed’s Bullard says rate path may be “overly aggressive”.

USD continued to slide on Friday. Continued political uncertainty and some dovish comments from Fed’s Bullard may be among the main catalysts.

Bullard acknowledged US economic data have been weak recently. As such, another two rate hikes this year “may be overly aggressive”.

Even though he is a well-known dove, there may be more policymakers that share this view. Thus, focus now turns to the rest of the Fed speakers (Kashkari today, Brainard tomorrow).

With nothing on the agenda, USD could stay on the back foot, at least until Brainard’s speech.

…….

Brexit Secretary warns UK will abandon talks if EU demands divorce bill.

GBP opened with a negative gap, possibly due to comments from David Davis on Sunday. He said the UK will walk out of Brexit talks unless the EU drops its demand for EUR 100bn.

GBP is likely to remain very sensitive to political developments, especially ahead of Election Day.

Speakers: Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari and ECB Executive Board member Jens Weidman.

As for the rest of the week:

Tue: Eurozone’s preliminary manufacturing & services PMIs and Germany’s Ifo survey, all for May.
Wed: BoC rate decision and FOMC minutes of May policy meeting.
Thu: OPEC & non-OPEC meeting. A 9-month extension of the current deal is widely anticipated.
Fri: Japan’s CPI and US durable goods, both for April. Also, 2nd estimate of US GDP for Q1.

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