JPY: AUDJPY, highest since August 2015

Headlines hitting wires from unnamed EU Commission source regarding potential EU sanctions on Russia:

• RTRS: According to a EU Commission source, EU ambassadors discussed punishing corporations and banks implicated in financing separatist actions in eastern Ukraine's breakaway regions.
• RTRS: EU ambassadors discussed banning trade in Russian state bonds in European market EU Commission source says.
• RTRS: EU Foreign Affairs ministers could agree on Russia sanctions package at talks in Paris later today, EU Commission source says.
• RTRS: EU ambassadors discussed kicking breakaway regions out of FTA between EU and Ukraine EU Commission source says.
• Silvia Amaro at CNBC tweets: "After #EU ambassadors meeting, EU diplomat says: All countries explicitly support new #Russia sanctions, except for one: Hungary. They stressed the importance of dialogue and wanted to reconvene with capital. More on EU sanctions this afternoon"
• German Chancellor Olaf Scholz states that he is 'confident' EU to agreee to 'robust and massive' sanctions against Russia.

• Fed Funds implied hikes have firmed notably in the past three hours kicked off by the Russian parliament planning to ratify agreements that don’t specify the exact borders of the self-proclaimed separatist entities with further headlines that could limit sanctions pressure for Russia.
• The US coming in after Presidents’ Day will see Mar 16 pricing almost back where it was prior to NY Fed’s Williams on Fri saying he didn’t see a compelling reason for a big rate increase at 33bps.
• In rare mon pol commentary, Governor Bowman said yesterday she will watch data closely to judge the size of the March increase (25 or 50bps) with her intent to take forceful action to cool inflation.
• Meetings further out have seen larger moves, more firmly pricing in 4 consecutive hikes to July (106bps) and back to 6 hikes for 2022 (155bps).

Fed Funds futures cumulative pricing for March, July and December meetings. Source: Bloomberg