BRAZIL: Local Rates, Equities Outperform As End Of BCB Hiking Cycle Seen

Bloomberg reports that PM Giorgia Meloni will visit Washington, D.C., as early as next week in an effort to press the Trump administration to offer concessions on tariffs. The Italian leadership "will propose eliminating tariffs on bilateral trade between the EU and the US," given that "About 10% of Italy’s exports go to the US, with some of its most important sectors such as pharmaceuticals, automakers, and the food and wine industries heavily affected by the levies."

• US Vice President JD Vance is set to visit Rome over the weekend on a personal visit, but it is expected that he will meet with Meloni during the trip. Meetings with both Vance and Trump in quick succession would give renewed impetus to the perception that Meloni is the EU leader best positioned to work out a deal with the US, providing the Italian gov't with significant political capital in dealings with Brussels and other EU member states.
• Speaking in Luxembourg earlier in the week, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, secretary of the centre-right Forza Italia, was unclear on the Italian gov'ts stance regarding retaliatory tariffs. He said "Italy will support all the initiatives" of Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic, and that Rome has no intention of putting the Commission "in difficulty.". However, he also raised the prospect of delaying the tariffs responding to Trump's earlier steel and aluminium levies to 30 April in an effort to facilitate talks. 

MNI speaks with economist and former IMF senior policy adviser Barry Eichengreen, who argues Trump tariffs will weaken the dollar's reserve-currency status.-- On MNI Policy MainWire now, for more details please contact sales@marketnews.com

• EUR/USD: $1.0880(E1.2bln), $1.0900-05(E1.4bln), $1.0950(E551mln)
• USD/JPY: Y147.00($716mln), Y147.40-50($1.2bln)
• EUR/JPY: Y162.75-90(E719mln)
• AUD/USD: $0.5975(A$650mln)
• USD/CAD: C$1.4100($571mln)