Market Update

Wednesday (April 10, 2019) held significant events for financial markets, with the release of the Fed minutes from its March monetary policy meeting, US CPI inflation data, an ECB monetary policy meeting, and an EU/Brexit summit. However, the day, and the entire week, turned out to be quite uneventful.
The Fed minutes didn't provide any substantial new information; the Fed indicated it's likely to keep interest rates unchanged for the rest of the year, showing confidence in the economic and inflationary outlook. There were no signs of an imminent rate cut, despite softer-than-expected US CPI inflation data. While the headline reading rose to 1.9% due to higher oil prices, the core reading slowed to 2.0% from 2.1%, suggesting that inflation might fall below the Fed's 2% target soon. This could eventually prompt the Fed to consider rate cuts.
As anticipated, the ECB maintained eurozone interest rates and stated that there wouldn't be any rate hikes this year.
The Brexit saga continued, with EU leaders agreeing to extend the deadline to Thursday, October 31, 2019. However, the value of this extension is questionable, as it merely prolongs the uncertainty. The UK economy grew by 0.2% in February, possibly due to companies advancing orders and stockpiling before the original Brexit date of March 29, 2019.
Additionally, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) lowered its global growth outlook, indicating a slight slowdown rather than a recession. The world economy is expected to grow by 3.3% in 2019, down from the 3.5% forecast in January. The US growth forecast for 2019 was lowered to 2.3% due to the partial government shutdown in January, but the outlook for 2020 improved to 1.9% following the Fed's dovish shift. The eurozone's 2019 outlook was cut to 1.3%, and the UK's to 1.2%.
Looking ahead to the next week, the UK will release employment data (unemployment rate and weekly earnings), CPI, and retail sales. Additionally, there will be US retail sales, the Fed's Beige Book, eurozone CPI, eurozone PMI, and Chinese GDP data to watch.