On tap for Friday: April Consumer...>

US DATA PREVIEW: On tap for Friday: April Consumer Price Index (CPI); Q2 St.

Louis and NY Fed GDP Nowcasts; Apr Tsy budget balance. Fed speakers include Fed

Brd Gov Brainard, Atl Fed Pres Raphael Bostic, NY Fed President John Williams.

- RBS NatWest economists "expect fairly broad-based strength, including the core

measure. In April, the core may have advanced by 0.203%, which would push up the

y/y rate from 2.0% in March to 2.1% in April."

- TD Securities estimate headline CPI will "pick up two tenths to 2.1% in April

on the back of a strong 0.4% monthly increase. The main driver behind the gain

is another sizable jump in gasoline prices (+10.2%). We anticipate core CPI

inflation to register another 0.2% m/m gain (2.1% y/y), as a firm increase in

core services prices will likely offset a another decline in core goods prices."

- Morgan Stanley sees core CPI up 0.17% MoM, "which would raise YoY rate back up

to 2.1% from 2.0%. As for headline CPI, rising oil prices drive a strong 3.3%

gain in energy in our forecast. On top of a solid gain in food prices, we look

for headline CPI to rise 0.40% on the month, accelerating on a year-over-year

basis to 2.1% from 1.9% in March."