Dollar slips

The euro and sterling have both gained some ground against the dollar with the former kicking on to over $1.1950 this morning and the pound recovering to around $1.38. This leaves the single currency-pound exchange rate largely unchanged at just over 86.5p

Equity markets chalked up small gains yesterday notwithstanding some disappointing news on the vaccine front, while US government 10-year bond yields closed about 6bps lower at 1.62% with equivalent German yields flat on the day at -02.9%

The annual rate of CPI inflation in the US picked up to 2.6% in March (from 1.7% in February), its highest level since August 2018, while the core (or underlying) rate nudged up to 1.6% (from 1.3%)

ECB Vice-President De Guindos says it is “of the utmost importance that the NextGenerationEU plan (the EU’s recovery fund) becomes operational without delay, as it would allow Member States to restart their economies”

Data due today includes industrial production in the Euro Area and import prices in the US