Marios Maratheftis Rate Quotations

We're going to see significant sterling weakness this year. Although the Bank of England is on hold for now the pressure is building for rate cuts in the second half of the year.

Fukui's comments are positive on a shift in policy, and we may even get rate hikes later this year. That is positive for the yen.

The payrolls data managed to change interest rate expectations -- the market was pricing in a March (U.S. rate) hike by about 75-80 percent before the payrolls numbers came out. Once they had come out that was pushed towards 90 percent.

Economic news from Japan is positive, but the yen isn't benefiting from this very much because we're not likely to see a change in the interest rate policy yet. It's going to be difficult for the yen to stage a convincing recovery until the BOJ acts.

The dominating theme in the market is yield. That's supporting the dollar and will continue to do so in the short term until the Fed signals it's thinking about the end of the rate cycle.