FX News Today
European Fixed Income Outlook: Stock markets rose in Asia, amid news that President Trump agreed to an unprecedented summit with North Korea’s leader, thus easing concerns of an escalation of tensions. Nikkei and Topix closed with gains of 0.32% and 0.47% respectively, Hang Seng and CSI 300 are currently up 1.07% and 0.79%. U.S. stock futures are narrowly mixed, however, so far not suggesting that the news will light a fireworks on U.S. markets. Long bond yields are mixed. 10-year JGB’s came down from earlier highs and is now down -0.2 bp on the day at 0.040%, as the BoJ remained on hold as expected. 10-year Treasury yields are up 1.3 bp. Oil prices are also higher and the front end Nymex future trading at USD 60.23 per barrel. Gold prices are heading for a third weekly drop amid easing geopolitical tensions higher.
FX Update: The yen weakened on political news, specifically Trump’s agreeing to Kim Jong Un’s request for a meeting and a declaration from North Korea that it is suspending ICBM testing, which was tonic for stock markets in Asia. The BoJ left policy settings unchanged, and left its outlook unaltered (the statement noting that the economy is “expanding moderately”), as expected. BoJ Governor Kuroda will be holding a press conference shortly, where he is likely to maintain that an exit from stimulus remains in the distance. USDJPY rallied to an eight-day high of 106.94, up over 60 pips from yesterday’s New York closing level. BoJ Governor Kuroda stuck to a dovish script at his post-meeting press conference, saying that further easing measures must be considered in the event that momentum towards achieving the 2% inflation target wanes and that there are presently no plans to exit from stimulative policy settings. He also stressed that the BoJ will “patiently continue with aggressive stimulus.” He said that stimulus could be taken away before the inflation target is seem, but weakened this verbalization by adding “in theory.” The BoJ earlier announced unchanged policy. Japan’s economy is amid its longest growth phase in decades, but inflation has remained chronically anem
Charts of the Day
Main Macro Events Today
- UK Industrial Production – January industrial output to rise 1.5% m/m rebounding from the -1.3% figure seen in December
- Canadian Employment Change & Unemployment Rate – projected to show a 20.0k gain in February after the 88.0k tumble in January. The unemployment rate is expected to hold at 5.9%
- US Non-Farm Payrolls – February nonfarm payrolls are expected to increase by 205k from 200K last month.
- US Unemployment Rate – The unemployment rate is expected to hold steady from a 4.1% rate since October.
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Andria Pichidi
Market Analyst
HotForex
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