EU: Summit On Defence & Ukraine Set To Get Underway As Leaders Arrive

Bank of Finland Governor Rehn’s interview with the FT focuses solely on the prospect of a trade war with the US, not touching on monetary policy matters (though, his views around monetary policy ceasing to become restrictive in Spring/Summer this year are well-known at this stage). Some highlights:

• "The last thing we need is a new trade war between allies but we need to take proportionate policy measures [in case the EU is going to be targeted by the US],"
• “If you ask economists, the majority would say that it would be better for everybody not to retaliate. But this is not only [about] economics, this is mostly politics"…."It's better to prepare policy measures, consult member states and in case Europe will be concretely targeted by tariffs, then make it more specific”.
• "Tariffs will hit most American consumers and will have an inflationary effect on the US economy,"
• “There seems to be a different kind of rationality [in Washington] than to what we are used to in international relations,"…."As President Trump has himself stated, he's a 'tariff man' and it seems to be a very ideological issue for him and his administration".

SOFR FIX - Source BBG/CME

• 1M 4.30733 -0.00535
• 3M 4.30188 -0.00125
• 6M 4.26173 0.01066
• 12M 4.19270 0.02496

SFIM5 95.85/95.65ps 1x2 with SFIU5 96.00/95.70ps 1x2, bought the strip for 5.25 in 2.5k.