5 things to start your day

[Bloomberg Markets]( [FOLLOW US [Facebook Share]]([Twitter Share]( [SUBSCRIBE [Subscribe]](  Forward Guidance  Powell testifies to Congress, Sky gets a new suitor, and market rally pauses Fed up Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is due to testify before the House Financial Services Committee at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time this morning, with the text of his testimony due for release at 8:30 a.m. Powell, in his first appearance in Congress since he took over as Fed Chair from Janet Yellen, is likely to say that the economy is [stronger than expected](, with fiscal stimulus working against attempts to use monetary policy to tap the brakes. It is unlikely that he will give many hints as to the pace of rate increases for this year, ahead of the FOMC update to its economic forecasts next month. Sky high Shares in Sky Plc rose [as much as 20 percent]( in London trading this morning after Comcast made a surprise bid for the U.K.’s biggest pay-TV company. Comcast’s bid of 12.50 pounds per share which values Sky at 22.1 billion pounds ($31 billion) is well in excess of the 10.75 pounds per share offered by Rupert Murdoch’s 21 Century Fox Inc. for the 61 percent stake it doesn’t already own. The market is pricing a battle for control of the company, with shares trading at 13.35 pounds at 5:40 a.m., higher than both bids on the table. Markets flat Yesterday’s decisive rally in U.S. stocks, which saw the S&P 500 Index,  close 1.2 percent higher hasn’t carried over to global markets. Overnight, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index was 0.2 percent higher, with Japan’s Topix Index clocking a 0.9 percent gain, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 0.7 percent. In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index was 0.1 percent lower at 5:40 a.m., with media companies the strongest performers in the wake of the Sky offer. S&P 500 futures pointed to a [slightly lower open](, the 10-year Treasury yield was at 2.871 percent and gold was unchanged. Goldilocks Central banks are facing a new era of problems, according to Ray Dalio, the billionaire founder of the world’s biggest hedge fund. In an interview with Bloomberg Television in Beijing, he described the current situation where there is [growth without inflation]( as the “goldilocks part of the cycle” with challenges looming as monetary policy makers struggle to maintain balance between the two. Dalio is not alone in worrying about the future, with Germany’s Bundesbank this morning announcing it is increasing the amount of money it’s putting aside to [cover any future losses]( when the ECB starts to raise interest rates. Coming up… It is not just Powell that markets need to keep an eye on today, with U.S. durable goods orders, and wholesale inventories data released at 8:30 a.m., and consumer confidence for February due at 10:00 a.m. North of the border, it’s [budget day in Canada](, and with minimal room to entertain new ambitious spending measures. At 2:00 p.m., the Brookings Institute hosts a conversation between former Fed chairs Janet Yellen and Ben Bernanke. Here's what you should read today - Investors reaching for yield are now finding it’s [less of a stretch](. - Self-proclaimed Bitcoin inventor accused of [swindling $5 billion]( of cryptocurrency. - Norway’s wealth fund returned [$131 billion]( in 2017. - UK is set to become a net [crude oil exporter](. - ProShares [slashes leverage]( on surviving volatility products. - The top sector in Asian assets [isn’t what you think](. - Arctic [stronghold of world's seeds]( reaches one million mark.  And finally, here’s what Joe’s interested in this morning Happy Jerome Powell Day. Hopefully everyone's excited about hearing from the new Fed chair for the first time since his ascension to the top of Fed. The change in leadership comes at what is, potentially, one of the most interesting moments for the economy since the financial crisis. For the first time, there is a legitimate expectation that the goldilocks backdrop of low inflation in concert with economic expansion may be shifting into a different gear. Of course, you probably know all this. But here's some context. My Bloomberg colleague Matt Boesler [came on What'd You Miss yesterday]( with a nice chart breaking down the inflation landscape into different layered categories. As you can see from the magenta line, core PCE inflation has a nice bounce lately, and perhaps it will soon head to the Fed's 2 percent goal. But it was substantially higher than it is now during much of 2016. The blue line is particularly interesting: procyclical prices represent things which can reasonably be assumed to be sensitive to the economy (unlike, say, computer chips or TVs that just always go down in price.) This line has been dropping for awhile, and has only modestly moved up lately. The yellow line is housing, which is very cyclical, and as you can see it moves in long, slow trends. It too has been slowing down for awhile now, and there's no real sign of a turnaround there. There's all different ways to slice inflation data, and there's no doubt you could put together charts showing a real upward turn in prices. But it's important to recognize that at least by some measures, the case for substantially accelerating inflation is hardly a slam dunk.   Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can't find anywhere else. [Learn more.](   You received this message because you are subscribed to the Bloomberg Markets newsletter.   [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022