In the United States, all eyes will be on Q1 GDP growth rate and PCE prices, alongside personal income and spending figures. Additionally, investors will closely monitor durable goods orders, S&P Global Manufacturing and Services PMI's and pending and new home sales. Also, earnings season will hit a crescendo with over thirty companies boasting market caps exceeding $100 billion set to unveil their financial reports. Meanwhile, manufacturing and services PMI’s will be released for Australia, Japan, India, France, Germany, the Euro Area, and the United Kingdom. Also, consumer confidence data will be scrutinized for the Euro Area, South Korea, Italy, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Finally, investors will closely watch: interest rate decisions in Japan, China, and Turkey interest rates decisions, Australia's inflation date, and South Korea's GDP growth rate.

The yield on the 10-year German Bund surpassed the 2.5% threshold, reaching its highest level since November 27th, as concerns regarding a broader conflict in the Middle East diminished following Tehran's apparent downplaying of Israel's attack on Iranian soil earlier on Friday. Additionally, investors scaled back their expectations for interest rate cuts this year, buoyed by strong US economic data. The revised outlook suggests a probability of less than three ECB rate cuts in total for the year, implying a monetary easing of 70 basis points. This adjustment in expectations occurred despite the bloc's central bank signaling its readiness to start reducing borrowing costs as early as June, with several officials hinting at three rate cuts this year. Elsewhere, Federal Reserve officials are advocating for the US central bank to postpone rate cuts.

Bitcoin saw a nearly 3% increase to 65.2K on Friday as anticipation built for the upcoming halving event expected for early Saturday. This event occurs approximately every four years and reduces the reward for bitcoin miners, ultimately slowing the production of new bitcoins. Historically, the past three halving in 2020, 2016, and 2012 have led to significant price surges post-event; however, this time the market seems to have already factored in some of the anticipated impact. Bitcoin has surged by approximately 50% this year, reaching a peak of 73.8K in March, helped by the approval of the first US-listed ETF to track bitcoin by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Producer prices in Germany dropped by 2.9% year-on-year in March 2024, following a 4.1% fall in the previous month. It marked the ninth consecutive month of producer deflation but the smallest decline since July, driven by a fall in energy costs (-7.0%), influenced by natural gas (-15.4%), electricity (-12.6%), and mineral oil products (-1.0%). Meanwhile, prices of intermediate goods shrank by 3.7%, dragged down by metals (-6.6%) and basic chemicals (-9.0%). Conversely, prices of non-durable consumer goods rose by 0.3%, while those of durable consumer goods increased by 1.0%. Also, prices of capital goods climbed 2.8%, mainly boosted by advances in machinery prices (3.0%) and the prices of motor vehicles, trailers, and semi-trailers (2.2%). On a monthly basis, producer prices were up by 0.2% after a 0.4% decline in February, compared to forecasts of a flat reading.

Retail sales volumes in the United Kingdom were flat in March 2024, following a revised 0.1% rise in February and missing the market expectation of a 0.3% growth. Increases in sales of automotive fuel by 3.2% and non-food stores by 0.5% were offset by declines in food stores and non-store retailers, which experienced decreases of 0.7% and 1.5%, respectively. Looking at the quarter, trade increased by 1.9% in the three months to March when compared with the previous three months. On a yearly basis, retail sales rose by 0.8%, rebounding from a revised 0.3% decline the month before.

The annual inflation rate in Japan ticked lower to 2.7% in March 2024 from February's 3-month peak of 2.8%, matching market consensus. There were slowdowns in prices of transport (2.9% vs 3.0% in February), clothes (2.0% vs 2.6%), furniture & household utensils (3.2% vs 5.1%), healthcare (1.5% vs 1.8%), communication (0.2% vs 1.4%), and culture & recreation (7.2% vs 7.3%). At the same time, inflation was stable for food (at 4.8%), housing (at 0.6%), education (at 1.3%), and miscellaneous (at 1.1%). Meanwhile, prices of fuel, and light dropped the least in a year (-1.7% vs -3.0%), with electricity (-1.0% and -2.5%) and gas (-7.1% vs -9.4%) falling at softer paces as energy subsidies from the government would fully end in May. The core inflation rate fell to 2.6% from a four-month top of 2.8%, slightly below forecasts of 2.7%. Monthly, consumer prices rose by 0.2% in March, the most since last October, after being flat in the prior two months.