• Market sentiment deteriorates as traders await BoJ, US NFP.
• S&P 500 Futures stretch the previous day’s fall towards refreshing multi-day low.
• Yields remains pressured and weigh on US Dollar but Gold, Oil fails to rise.
• Geopolitical woes, inflation fears add strength to the risk-off mood as traders brace for huge volatility.

The risk profile remains dour as market players await this week’s key data/events amid early Friday. Adding strength to the sour sentiment could be the geopolitical fears surrounding China and the US, as well as Russia.

While portraying the mood, the S&P 500 Futures drop to a fresh low since January 10, down half a percent near 3,900, whereas the US 10-year and two-year Treasury bond yields fall for the second consecutive day to 3.83% and 4.76% in that order.

Mixed US data and impending inflation fears appear important catalysts for the markets to remain jittery as the US Initial Jobless Claims marked the biggest jump since January by rising to 211K for the week ended on March 03 versus 195K expected and 190K prior. Additionally, the Challenger Job Cuts were down and the Continuing Jobless Claims were up.

It should be noted that the latest report from the New York Fed mentioned that recent upward revisions to inflation data coupled with higher-than-expected levels of inflation had changed the picture of what had appeared to be a cooling in price pressures.

Elsewhere, the geopolitical fears emanating from US President Joe Biden’s budget proposal for 2024 and the US partnership with the UK and Australia for nuclear submarines weigh on the risk appetite.

Alternatively, a news piece from Bloomberg suggesting that China’s consumer spending is showing signs of a strong rebound joins the hopes of more stimulus from the dragon nation and the US readiness for more spending seems to battle with the market’s pessimism.

Above all, the cautious mood prior to the Bank of Japan’s (BoJ) Monetary Policy Meeting announcements, as well as the US and Canadian jobs report for February, not to forget the UK data dump, challenge the optimists amid hawkish bias from the key central banks.

Also read: Forex Today: Risk off and a mixed Dollar with all eyes on NFP