Funda, political and European market recap: a quiet start with some political sound bites

Monday, so far, has been quiet, both in terms of price action and events. 

China has been celebrating the Lunar New Year all weekend and continued to do so overnight while the US has been out celebrating President day. Many will also be off desks for Canad family day.

Since Asia opening, we have second tier data with Japan’s trade balance proving that a stronger yen has so far, not been damaging exports yet while they expanded in January by 12.2% y/y - (Imports rose 7.9% y/ y). We also got the UK's Rightmove house price index that rose 0.8% m/m in February.

From the European shift, EZ current account surplus reached €29.9 billion in December on a seasonally adjusted basis.

On the political front, the Europeans were warned by Germany's Merkel that the EU budget would be challenging after Brexit. 

After  Ireland's central bank chief Philip Lane pulling out of the race, we had the ascension of Spain's Economic Minister Luis De Guindos who has been selected in as the next ECB VP nominee and to take over from Portugal's Vitor Constancio, leaving in May this year after 8 years of service.

De Guindos made some statements after his nomination to ECB Vice President:

• Will resign as Spanish economy minister.
• Says he's pragmatic when it comes to MP.
• Having been a government minister does not limit the independence of the ECB.
• Independence of ECB guaranteed by its mandate.

In other noise came, Latvia's central bank gov. Ilmars Rimsevics was detained and questioned on corruption charges. He has since been released, LTV reporting, while his lawyer said he will likely hold a news conference on Tuesday - he denies the charges.

Looking ahead, markets wait to hear from BoE's gov. Carney who is making a speech at 18.45 GMT today at Regents Univerity under the title, "Leadership and Values". Markets will be listening out for the Q&As for anything related to monetary policy, especially after the latest hawkish guidance of late.

European markets were starting the week in the Red while 10-year yields were all higher:

• DAX down -0.6% (German 10-year yields 0.735%, up 2.9 bp).
• CAC down -0.5% ( French 10-year yields 0.993%, up 4 bp).
• FTSE MIB down -1.0% (Itay's  10-year yields 2.047%, up 6.2 bp).
• PSI20 down -1.3% ( Portugal's  10-year yields 2.03%, up 2.5 bp).
• FTSE down -0.7% (UK 10-year yields 1.602%, up 2.1 bp).
• IBEX down -0.9% (Spanish 10-year yields 1.513%, up 5.3 bp).