Bond traders locked in for July seek clues about rest of 2019

Bond traders appear certain that the Federal Reserve is on the brink of its first rate cut since 2008. The biggest question, as the market girds for a barrage of speeches by policy makers, is what comes next. Chairman Jerome Powell last week opened the door to a July cut, stressing a cooling global economy and trade friction as drivers. That leaves investors monitoring US retail sales figures this week and the latest economic data out of Europe and Asia to fine-tune wagers on the extent of cuts for the rest of 2019. Futures imply a quarter-point July Fed cut and a total of almost 70bps for 2019.