Investors await major events ahead of long weekend

There are two major market events scheduled for today ahead of the long Easter weekend. investors will be keeping an eye on the monetary policy announcement from the European Central Bank at 12:45 pm BST as well as a US retail sales report for March at 1:30 pm BST both of which could be volatility triggers for EURUSD and stock markets. When it comes to the European Central Bank monetary policy decision, nobody expects the level of interest rates to be changed as the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict has caused a significant disparity in the approach between the ECB and the FED. However, there is no consensus when it comes to asset purchases since some banks expect the ECB to announce the end of APP by the end of May today and start preparing markets for a potential rate hike as soon as June while others do not expect such an announcement ahead of the June meeting as this will be when the updated set of economic forecasts is released. In either today we could be seeing some significant moves in markets as a result of these events along with some portfolio rebalancing as investors and traders attempt to limit their risk exposure ahead of the long weekend.

US earning season continues with major financial institutions

After yesterday’s lackluster results from Blackrock and JP Morgan, investors are looking at today's earnings reports from other major financial institutions such as Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs for some reassurance. While most expect results for the first quarter of 2022 to be worse than a year ago, any unexpected negative surprises could worsen sentiment even further as the general economic climate of uncertainty and record inflation continues to pressure consumers and producers. On the other hand, upbeat results could further boost the ongoing rebound of stock markets which started the day quite mixed ahead of the long easter weekend and as many also await today’s US unemployment figures along with the retail sales report at 13:30 BST which will be the first report to capture the whole impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.