Dollar's rally continues after brief consolidations yesterday. The dollar index edged higher to 97.88 while USD/JPY also strengthens to 121.61, heading to 121.84 resistance. The greenback also stays firm elsewhere. Cleveland Fed president Loretta Mester said yesterday that the "economy is making substantial progress toward the Federal Reserve's goals", that is full employment and 2% inflation.
She noted that if incoming economic information continues to support her forecast, she would be "comfortable with liftoff in the first half of this year". FOMC will meet again next week and there are speculations that Fed would drop the word "patient" in the statement and pave the way for rate hike between June and September.
In eurozone, it's reported that EU and Greece will start technical loan talk this Wednesday. Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem warned that Greece had "no time to lose" and only four months are left to "get it done". He emphasized that "some people will have to be on the ground in Athens."
Meanwhile, Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras is still insisting that negotiations should be done in Brussels. ECB president Mario Draghi urged Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis open the government's books for examination to determine the finance shortfalls.
Released fro China, CPI jumped sharply to 1.4% yoy in February. That's a strong recovery from the five year low of 0.8% yoy in January. Also, it beat expectation of 1.0% yoy. PPI, on the other hand, dropped to -4.8% yoy versus expectation of -4.3%. Elsewhere, Japan money stock M2 rose 3.5% yoy in February. Australia NAB business confidence dropped to 0 in February. UK BRC sales monitor rose 0.2% yoy in February. Looking ahead, the economic calendar is relatively light today with Swiss unemployment and US wholesale inventories featured.