Friday 25th March 2022

It’s a very mixed and confusing day today. “It’s rare that you see equities and bond yields rise at the same time”, says NAB’s David de Garis, but maybe markets have optimism that the Fed’s aggressive stance will put the inflation genie back in its bottle. Or investors are a little unsure where to park money right now. Or, perhaps, investors see anything in the US to be safer than Europe, where inflation will be driven higher through fuel shortages. Meanwhile, PMIs have risen, most notably for services in the UK and the USA, a reflection of a braver stance on post-COVID re-openings. The major currency move has been a fall in the Yen, reflecting the widening gap between yields between Japan and the US. In amongst all the confusion, the Aussie dollar is holding its own.