Morning Juice – US Session Prep

Morning, Traders!
It is Thursday the 7th of March, here are some things to look out for.

Sentiment
Stocks rose as traders seized on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s hint that US interest rates would be cut later this year. Fed’s Mester is scheduled to deliver a speech on the economic outlook.

US Fed Chair Jerome Powell will give additional testimony to Congress, where he is expected to reiterate that the economy is still too strong to cut interest rates anytime soon.

In Europe, attention is focused on the European Central Bank, which is expected to release new economic projections and likely hold rates steady for the fourth consecutive meeting.

Docket
08:30 ET
US Trade Balance for January
Median Forecast: -63.5B | Prior: -62.2B | Range: -61B / -65.3B

US Weekly Jobless Claims
Initial Claims – Median Forecast: 217K | Prior: 215K | Range: 230K / 205K
Continued Claims – Median Forecast: 1.88M | Prior: 1.905M | Range: 1.915M | 1.8M

11:30 ET
US sells $95 bln 4-Week bills

12:00 ET
Fed Quarterly Financial Accounts

Speakers
08:45 ET
ECB Press Conference with President Lagarde following the ECB Interest Rate Decision.

10:00 ET
Fed Chair Powell Testifies before the Senate Banking Committee. Day 2 of Powell’s testimonies. The text of the speech will be the same as yesterday, but new comments from Powell will come from Powell as he takes questions from the Senators.
Full Speech
Watch Here

11:30 ET
Fed’s Mester gives a virtual speech on the economic outlook as part of the European Economics and Financial Centre’s Distinguished Speaker Series.
There will be a Q&A.

Good luck!