- BOJ likely to ease monetary policy on Friday via increase in asset purchases by 5 or 10 trln yen. BOJ may extend maturity of Japan govt bonds it buys under its’ asset-buying scheme to 3 years from 2 years – Sources -Reuters reporting
- Ex-BOJ Nakahara: BOJ’s policy steps so far ‘mere trick’
- Interesting times coming for currencies – Deutsche via CNBC (yer right)
- CDU’s Altmaier: French election won’t influence EU fiscal pact
- UBS consumption indicator for Switzerland rises to 1.22 in March from 0.90 in February
- Swiss March trade balance 1688 mln
- French April consumer confidence indicator 88, up from 87 in March and better than Reuter’s median forecast of unchanged 87
- UK March PSNB ex-financial sector intervention 18.174 bln, worse than Reuter’s median forecast of 16.0 bln. But February’s PSNB revised down to 12.2 bln from previous 15.2 bln
- Greece worse off staying in euro, says Ifo – The Telegraph
The monotony continues. Yen has seen some marginal weakness this morning, amid heightened expectations of further monetary easing at this Friday’s BOJ meeting (helped by Reuters report, see above)
Also weighing on the yen is the slightly better general risk backdrop, with European stocks regaining some poise after recent maulings. Germany’s DAX is up around 1% at writing. US treasury yields firmer, benchmark 10 year yield at 1.9524% from the 1.9244% I saw first thing.
USD/JPY up at 81.17 from early 80.85, having been as high as 81.26. EUR/JPY up at 106.85 from early 106.40 and GBP/JPY at 131.05 from early 130.40.
EUR/USD sits at 1.3165, a whole 10 pips firmer from when I sat down, early fledgling rally spluttering to a halt at 1.3183. Truly pathetic!!! Dutch, Spanish, Italian bond auctions came and went and the market simply shrugged.
Cable up marginally at 1.6145 from early 1.6120. Well ofcourse it is, sterling seems to be a real market favourite at the moment. Event risk looms large though in the form of tomorrow’s Q1 GDP data release. Cue the Jaws music
Talk of barrier option interest at 1.6200.
UPDATE: As I’ve been typing this, EUR/USD has slipped 10 pips to 1.3155. We’re now totally unchanged on the day…yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
