American FX Outlook: Day Two Of Powell's Testimony

What you need to know before markets open:

• The EU’s version of the Brexit withdrawal draft set the UK politician on fire, calling the proposal “absolutely unacceptable” and hitting the Pound strongly.
• The manufacturing activity in the Eurozone as a whole decelerated with national indices coming off previous multi-year highs.
• The Day 2 of the Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell to speak in Congress with main messages presumably being spoken already on Tuesday.

Thursday’s market moving events

• The US personal spending is expected to rise 0.2 percent m/m in January while personal income is seen rising 0.3 pwercent m/m.
• The US weekly jobless claims are expected to reach 226K in a week ending February 23.
• The second day of Congressional testimony is scheduled for the Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell starts at 15:00 GMT.
• The New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley is scheduled to deliver "Remarks on Trade and Globalization" at a Central Bank of Brazil event in Sao Paulo, Brazil at 16:00 GMT.

Major market movers

• Sterling was a loser of the day on Wednesday after the European Union presented Brexit withdrawal draft that would create a hard border in Northern Ireland and was immediately rejected by the UK officials.
• The US Dollar is trading at a 6-week high against majors and it is still expected to remain in the spotlight with regards to the second part of Powell’s testimony.

Earlier in Asia/Europe

• China’s Caixin manufacturing PMI rose to 51.6 in February.
• Spanish Q4 GDP is set to rise 3.1 percent y/y.
• Spanish manufacturing PMI rose to 56.0 in February with new orders rising to 13-month high.
• Italian final manufacturing PMI fell to 56.8 in February, the lowest since September 2017.
• French final manufacturing PMI decelerated to 55.9 in February.
• German final manufacturing PMI dipped to 60.6 in February.
• The Eurozone manufacturing PMI is forecast to also stay unchanged at 58.5 in February.
• The UK manufacturing PMI decelerated to 55.2 in February.
• The Eurozone unemployment rate remained stable at 8.6 percent in January.