Today's highlight: Donald Trump granted a 45-minute duplex to the Davos Forum, and the bond markets will essentially remember this phrase: "I demand that interest rates be cut immediately", which constitutes a deliberate breach of respect for the FED's independence.

But this is not the first time that Donald Trump has indulged in this kind of provocation towards Jerome Powell, and his "demand" has virtually no chance of being followed up.
But if the FED were to respond by being openly 'uncooperative', this could also worry Wall Street... which this evening is showing no emotion, as this kind of 'Trumpism' was commonplace during his 1st term.

If rates are tightening this Tuesday, it's not because of Donald Trump's 'abrupt' remarks; the deterioration was already well underway before he spoke.
With the return of risk appetite driving equity markets to new highs over the past ten days (the S&P broke through 6,100 on Wednesday evening, setting a new all-time record), bonds are holding little appeal, leading them to continue their recent episode of consolidation.
The yield on 10-year Treasuries deteriorated by +5pts to 4.648%, while the '30-year' posted +6.5pts to 4.880% (a level not seen since mid-January).

On the macroeconomic front, the 'number of the day' concerned weekly jobless claims: the Labor Department announced that 223.000 new jobless claims in the US in the week to January 13, up 6,000 on the previous week.
The four-week moving average - more representative of the underlying trend - came in at 213,500, up anecdotally by 750 on the previous week.
No figures on the agenda this Thursday in Europe: the yield on the ten-year German Bund rose by +2pts to 2.5190%, while the yield on the OAT with the same maturity deteriorated by +3.7pts to 3.301%, giving a France/Germany spread of 78 points.
Further south, Italian BTPs are down +5.3% at 3.653%.

Finally, across the Channel, Gilts are up +5.6pts at 4.6900%.

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