- Yesterday's session on Wall Street somewhat cooled bullish investor sentiment.The technology Nasdaq lost 0.18%, the smaller-cap Russell 2000 fell 0.44%, and the S&P500, which presents the broad market picture, saw virtually no intraday deviation.
- Slightly weaker sentiment from the U.S. is resulting in a mixed session in APAC markets (with the only significant gains resuming in the Chinese market), where most benchmarks are losing ground. Futures also point to a lower opening to the session in Europe.
- In the FX market, the No. 1 theme continues to be the Japanese yen.
- The Japanese establishment made a verbal intervention on the yen today. Finance Minister Suzuki communicated that sudden moves in the FX market are undesirable, which was similarly commented on today by BoJ's Ueda himself. Moreover, the central bank governor added that when making future monetary decisions, bankers will be mindful of how the national currency may behave.
- The USDJPY pair, however, did not overreact to these comments, and after short-lived declines in trading, the dollar once again managed to break out to session highs.
- The key macro events of the day will be the BoE decision, the Polish MPC decision and a number of speeches by central bankers.
- China reported trade balance data, which may indicate a slight improvement in the country's economic momentum. Although the dollar figure came in well below expectations, the y/y growth rate for imports surprised sharply upward at 8.4% versus the expected 4.8%.
- In the FX market, the New Zealand dollar and the US dollar are currently performing best. Elevated declines are seen primarily in the Swiss franc and the Japanese yen.
- In the precious metals market, we are now seeing relatively large increases in quotations. Gold is adding nearly 0.5% this morning, while silver is up over 1%.
The USDJPY pair continues its dynamic upward trend today. Source: xStation
