MTS Help Center

• The dollar held firm on Thursday after the 10-year U.S. bond yield rose back to the psychologically important 3 percent mark and investors looked to U.S. consumer price (CPI) data due later to show a acceleration in inflation.

Elsewhere, investors are pushing back expectations for a rise in euro zone interest rates further into 2019 against a backdrop of soft economic data and disappointing inflation numbers, money market pricing suggested.

• Looking ahead, April’s US CPI report is in focus. The headline inflation rate is expected to rise to 2.5 percent on-year while the core reading stripping out volatile food and energy costs is seen printing at 2.2 percent. Both would mark the highest outcomes in 14 months. An upside surprise echoing clues in recent PMI survey data may reinvigorate Fed rate hike speculation, boosting the greenback at the expense of raw materials prices.

• Analysts had little hope that opposition to the U.S. action would prevent sanctions from going ahead.

“Europe and China will not fight against the U.S. sanctions. They will grumble and accept it. There is no one who will realistically choose Iran over the U.S.,” said energy consultancy FGE.

• The Bank of England will wait until August before raising interest rates, according to a Reuters poll in which nearly all economists pushed back previous expectations of a hike on Thursday.

That dramatic turnaround from a poll taken just a few weeks ago was triggered by dovish comments from BoE Governor Mark Carney, together with a slew of downbeat data suggesting Britain’s economy is barely growing.

All but three of the 62 economists polled from May 3-8 expect no move from 0.5 percent this month - a complete reversal from an April 18 poll when 69 of 76economists had a 25 basis point increase pencilled in for May 10.

Just under a third of economists polled now expect no change in August either.

• Israel launched dozens of rockets into Syria early on Thursday, destroying a radar installation and hitting an ammunitions dump, Syrian state media reported after Israel’s military said Iranian forces in Syria had shelled one of its outposts near the border.

Tensions between Israel and Iran have threatened to spill over in Syria, where the Iranian military and allied Shi’ite militia are backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his war against rebels seeking to oust him.

Arch-enemies Iran and Israel have appeared to edge closer to all-out war after Israel’s military said its positions in the Golan Heights were fired at with a barrage of Iranian rockets, prompting it to respond with extensive strikes targeting Tehran’s forces across Syria.

• Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda on Thursday warned of risks that could delay achievement of the central bank’s price target, such as the chance inflation expectations may not heighten as smoothly as projected.

“If there is strong uncertainty about future growth, firms will hesitate to raise wages,” Kuroda said in a speech. “Even if firms’ wage- and price-setting stance becomes more proactive, inflation expectations may not rise smoothly.”

• China won’t change its opposition to protectionism in its ongoing bilateral trade negotiations with the United States, its commerce ministry spokesman said on Thursday, even as a top Beijing official is expected to visit Washington soon for talks.

• Saudi Arabia said it will help meet world oil demand if President Donald Trump's Iran sanctions create shortfalls, but analysts say it will do so only in conjunction with Russia, and the world may have to get used to higher prices as a result.

Trump said the sanctions will be reimposed because Iran continues to work on a bomb, based on evidence provided by Israel, and it backs terrorist groups around the Middle East

• Oil prices clocked up more multi-year highs on Thursday as traders adjusted to the prospects of renewed U.S. sanctions against major crude exporter Iran amid an already tightening market.

Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, hit their strongest since November 2014, at $77.89 per barrel shortly before 0700 GMT on Thursday, up0.9 percent from their last close.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures also marked a November-2014 high, at $71.84 a barrel, before edging back to $71.78 per barrel. That was-still 0.9percent above their last settlement.

Reference: Reuters, CNBC