- US PPI data focus on Friday – the ranges expected
- Federal Reserve speakers on Friday include Barkin, Barr and Daly
- BOJ Ueda says will consider policy move when inflation target conditions met
- Japan finance minister Suzuki concedes that a weak yen has pros and cons
- European Central Bank speakers on Friday include Schnabel, de Cos
- Bank of England Chief Economist Huw Pill is speaking on Friday
- ANZ says the RBNZ has no tolerance for delays in the return of inflation to target
- Singapore January NODX surges to +16.8% y/y vs. +5.4% expected and -1.5% in December
- More from Fed’s Bostic: expects more progress on inflation, but could be bumpy
- Weak verbal intervention on the yen from Japan’s finance minister Suzuki
- Former Fed economist says the Fed is needlessly delaying rate cuts – “the risks are real”
- Bostic says the Fed is likely to consider rate cuts soon, but doesn’t face urgency
- JP Morgan says economic growth in China has steadied, will improve
- 5 reasons the RBA will not cut rates in 2024, & the jobs market data makes it more certain
- UBS remain positive on commodities over the medium term
- Market chatter that ECB will ‘tweak’ its statement in March, odds of June rate cut firming
- US stocks close higher. S&P now up on the week.
- Forexlive Americas FX news wrap: US dollar gives back the CPI gains on light retail sales
- New Zealand data – January manufacturing PMI 47.3 (prior 43.1)
- Trade ideas thread – Friday, 16 February, insightful charts, technical analysis, ideas
The
USD gained across the major FX board for the session here, with yen a
notable loser. USD/JPY rose from lows around 149.85 to be above
150.30 as I update. Japan finance minister Suzuki made statements
along his usual lines to try to support the yen and, again as usual,
he was not very successful. His remarks were only weakly supportive.
He didn’t suggest ‘will do whatever it takes’ and the like.
Also
from Japan today we had Bank of Japan Governor Ueda speaking in
parliament. Of note from his remarks were:
When
sustained, stable achievement of the price target comes into sight,
we will examine whether to maintain various easing measures,
including negative interest rate.
Based
on the economic and price outlook as of now, Japan’s monetary
conditions will likely remain accommodative even after ending
negative rates.
No
suggestions of a rush to tighten from the BOJ Gov. USD/JPY moved
towards its highs after these comments.
Otherwise
it was a lacklustre session. It’s the final day of Chinese market
closures, Monday is back to normal. We didn’t get a People’s Bank
of China Medium-term Lending Facility (MLF) rate setting this week.
Its normally conducted by the Bank on the 15th
of the month. Given the holidays it would seem Monday the 19th
will be the day, however I have heard that
the MLF will be conducted on the 18th.
I’ll keep an eye out over the weekend for this.
Most
analysts are expecting the interest rate on the borrowing cost of the
one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans will be unchanged
at 2.5%, but this is not a unanimous consensus.
ICYMI,
coming up today from the US are the PPI data for January, I posted a
‘ranges’ heads up to watch for any extreme result, like we got
from retail sales on Thursday. The -0.8% m/m for January was beyond
the lowest estimate of -0.7% and sent equity traders into a buying
frenzy. Although almost everything does it seems.
US PPI data due at 8.30 am US Eastern time.