ABN AMRO's Senior Economist Arjen van Dijkhuizen highlights that global manufacturing PMI slipped from 51.8 in February to 51.3 in March, largely linked to the Iran conflict.
BNY Strategist Geoff Yu argues that European rate markets still discount too many hikes for the European Central Bank (ECB), Bank of England (BoE) and Swiss National Bank (SNB) despite an improvement in global risk sentiment following the U.S.–Iran ceasefire.
Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said on Thursday that central banks should hike interest rates if inflation expectations threaten to de-anchor and ignite an inflation spiral, per Reuters.
OCBC strategists Sim Moh Siong and Christopher Wong note that USD/CNH has fallen sharply on a stronger Chinese Yuan (CNY) fix and improved risk sentiment following the US-Iran ceasefire.
Commerzbank economists Bernd Weidensteiner and Christoph Balz highlight that recent US labor market indicators, especially nonfarm payrolls and hours worked, have become unusually volatile and subject to larger revisions.
The United States' (US) real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expanded at an annual rate of 0.5% in the fourth quarter, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis' third estimate showed on Thursday.
Inflation in the United States, as measured by the change in the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index, held steady at 2.8% in February, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported on Thursday. This print came in line with the market expectation.
According to a report from the US Department of Labour (DOL) released on Thursday, the number of US citizens submitting new applications for unemployment insurance increased to 219K for the week ending April 4.
Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday that Israeli strikes on Lebanon would deem negotiations meaningless because they violate the ceasefire agreement, per Reuters.