Australia employment change. BOJ

The schedule is pretty heavy in the Asian session today with Australia's employment statistics and the BOJ completing their two-day meeting and announcing the latest Outlook report and Monetary Policy statement.

The list of events and releases include:

  • Private oil inventory data will be released at the 4:30 PM ET/2130 GMT. Oil inventories are supposed to have a draw of -1.2 million barrels. Gasoline inventories are expected to show a build of 2.8 million barrels. Distillates are expected to show a gain of 1.2 million barrels
  • New Zealand Net Migration statistics for the month of November. 4:45 PM ET/2145 GMT. The prior report showed a gain of 884
  • Japan Trade balance for the month of December. 6:50 PM ET/2350 GMT. The trade balance is expected to come in at ¥930.5 billion. That is an increase from the ¥366.1 billion in November. The adjuster trade balance is expected to come in at ¥719.2 billion vs. ¥570.2 billion in November. Exports are expected to increase by 2.4% vs. -4.2% last month. Imports are expected to decline by -13.9% vs. -11.1% last month
  • Australia consumer inflation expectations for January. 7 PM ET/0000 GMT. Last month the data showed an increase of 3.5%
  • Australian employment statistics for December: 7:30 PM ET/0030 GMT. Employment change expected to increase by 50 K vs. 90 K last month. Unemployment rate expected at 6.7% vs. 6.8% last month. Full-time employment last month came in at 84.2K. Part-time employment rose by 5.8 K. The participation rate is expected to tick up to 66.2% from 66.1% last month
  • Bank of Japan monetary policy statement. No scheduled time for the release. The central banks it is expected to keep the policy rate unchanged at -0.10%.. The bank has said that that "the economy has picked up although the remains in a severe situation". Economists see the economic impact from the latest state of emergency may be less severe than the previous one in April.. Japan's economy is expected to shrink -5.5% in fiscal 2020 (ending in March) and expand 3.6% in fiscal 2021 (according to BOJ projections in October). The CPI excluding fresh food prices expected to fall -0.6% in fiscal 2020, but is expected to rise by 0.4% in 2001. That is well below the 2% target. The BOJ watchers are speculating that the bank wants to scale back its buying of exchange traded funds from ¥12 trillion a year. The Bank of Japan is the largest holder of Japanese equities