OIL: Trump Senate Ally Supports Further Sanctions Against Russia
Lindsey Graham, a US Senate ally of President Trump, says he has the commitment of 72 colleagues for a bill that would enact new sanctions on Russia and tariffs on countries that buy its oil, gas, and other key products if Putin doesn't engage in serious negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
- It comes as Trump struggles to make progress towards peace efforts.
- The measures would include a 500% tariff on imports from countries that buy Russian oil, petroleum products, natural gas or uranium, according to a draft of the bill seen by Bloomberg.
- Graham says that Putin would eventually have to choose between sitting down with Trump to end the war or have the Russian economy be “crushed.”
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EUROPEAN INFLATION: Services Deceleration Continues in March EZ HICP
Eurozone March flash HICP Y/Y inflation came in at 2.18%, 0.02 hundredths below the rounded consensus of 2.2% (vs 2.32% February). On a monthly basis, Eurozone inflation came in at 0.61% (0.6% cons, 0.43% prior). The data on services in the release should be seen as a good sign regarding tapering stickiness in the category.
- Core HICP printed below consensus, at 2.41% Y/Y and 0.95% M/M (2.5% cons; Feb 2.57% Y/Y, 0.55% M/M).
- Looking at the individual categories:
- Services inflation notably decelerated to 3.42% Y/Y; rounded to 1dp, there has not been a print lower than 3.4% since April 2022. The median sellside analyst estimate ahead of the national data stood at 3.5% - so that looks like a bit of a downside surprise.
- Energy came in at -0.74% Y/Y, with the deceleration vs February's 0.19% underpinned by a sequential fall (M/M at -1.17%) - this looks broadly in line with expectations.
- Non-energy industrial goods printed 0.63% Y/Y, the category has remained between 0.44% and 0.70% since last May and this broadly in line with analyst consensus.
- Food, alcohol and tobacco inflation, as expected, accelerated in March, at 2.90% Y/Y, above February's 2.66% but also broadly line w/ expectations.
- Looking at the national-level prints, headline HICP inflation accelerated in 7 countries in March vs Feb (Netherlands, Austria, Estonia, Latvia, Malta) despite the overall decrease in headline.
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