US stocks closed higher yesterday but Asian equities are currently mixed. Markets have seemingly taken some solace from the White House backtracking on its stated plans to hit Amazon financially. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has waded into the spat between the US and China over import tariffs in a bid to avoid any further escalation of protectionist measures. The Australian Dollar spiked higher following a larger-than-expected 0.6% rise in retail sales in February but has given up most of its gains, seemingly weighed down by global trade concerns.
On the data front focus today is likely to be on March data for US non-manufacturing ISM (a decent gage of economic activity in the all important US service sector) and for Eurozone CPI-inflation, with analysts expecting a jump to 1.4% year-on-year from 1.1% in February. Eurozone inflation likely needs to rise substantially and match the recovery in Eurozone economic growth before a more hawkish European Central Bank can give the Euro another leg higher
