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Below are Views On Daily Global Market Update 14 April 2022 By Asheesh Chanda, Kristal.AI

“Central Banks tightening

As elevated prices appear to be here to stay, central banks across the world have started pulling back from their easy monetary stance of the last decade. Canada was more hawkish than expected yesterday, following RBNZ hiking by 50 bp too. The asset purchases are expected to halt entirely by the end of this month and they see the neutral range between 2-3% which they expect to hit this year. In Asia, we had a 25 bp hike from Korea this morning and Singapore increased the slope of its currency band (appreciation) while keeping the width and the center of the band unchanged. All countries cited increased price pressures for the move, particularly those exacerbated by the Ukraine invasion. Next up we have the ECB and Turkey's central bank tonight, with both expected to hold - no change in Erdogan's pressure to ease though, so we could see more pain in the TRY.

On Ukraine, Biden has gone ahead with calling Russia out for perpetrating genocide in Bucha - the use of the word drew mixed reaction from leaders of other allied nations. The US has also approved another USD 800 bn worth of weapons for Ukraine as Finland and Sweden inch closer to NATO membership after the invasion of Ukraine. Finland shares a long land border with Russia and this could possibly heighten tensions should they become a member. France's Le Pen said she would withdraw France from NATO's command should she be elected in 10 days, so that could prove to be a significant source of volatility there depending on the election outcome. The EU also confirmed that any payments for Russian gas imports in Rubles (as demanded by Putin) would violate sanctions as well - so far only Hungary has appeared willing to do so. Natural gas rose again yesterday with the rest of the energy complex.

US weekly crude inventories overnight saw record highs in Crude (from recent stockpiles release) but gasoline and distillates downstream saw significant declines - which means price pressures are likely to persist. Equities were up ahead of the long weekend as all sectors of the SPX were in the green, barring a small decline in Utilities. The yield curve stayed inversion free for a second straight session as yields came off a little - the 2s10s even widened to more than 30 bps now. Commodities were in the green and Crypto appears to be holding up well from its recent stumble. The GBP saw the biggest gain yesterday as the dollar came off a little in line with yields. Apart from the ECB and TCMB tonight, we also have US weekly unemployment numbers and retail sales.”

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