- A heads up for next week RBNZ meeting - rate hike baked in
- Risk FX holding its gains after the Blinken-Lavrov meeting news
- US Sec State Blinken will meet with Russia Foreign Min Lavrov late next week
- Heads up for the next variant - might be able to transmit better and cause worse disease,
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 6.3343 (vs. estimate at 6.3321)
- Biden to host meeting with leaders of Canada, France, Germany, UK and more on Friday
- China has halted flights from Zhuhai to Bejing on COVID-19 outbreak
- More from Japan's fin min - ready to splurge more fiscal support "without hesitation"
- Japan's fin min says rising prices driven mostly by energy costs, yen moves also
- Biden spoke with Draghi - both reaffirmed commitment to Ukraine sovereignty
- Japan January Headline CPI 0.5% y/y (expected 0.6%)
- UK Times reports that senior UK government figures " convinced Putin is about to invade”
- More from Fed's Mester - Fed will take action to keep inflation under control
- Fed's Mester says the FOMC should act more quickly than in the previous tightening episode
- Oil ICYMI - U.S.-Iranian nuclear deal taking shape - draft sighted
- Trade ideas thread - Friday 18 February 2022
- Oil - US discussions with Saudi Arabia on managing market pressure re Russia/Ukraine
- NZ PPI for Q4 2021, PPI input and output both come in under expected
- ICYMI: US President Biden is expected to issue a cryptocurrency executive order next week
- Bitcoin is continuing its sharp fall, under $41K
- Stocks take it on the chin again.
It was a subdued session across major FX rates. The news that United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will meet late next week then provided small moves (see bullets above). Yen crosses gained a few points and equities caught a bid. The kiwi $ was an outperformer while cable was at the other end of the spectrum. Gold lost ground.
In other events, Federal Reserve Cleveland President Loretta Mester spoke without adding to much new to our understanding of FOMC thinking. A rate hike is coming in March and there will more following was the gist of her messaging.
Japanese January inflation data was published. The headline figure was positive for the fifth month in a row. The result for CPI excluding food and energy, which is the closest to the US measure of core CPI, though, was -0.7% y/y. There is little to show Japanese inflation is getting anywhere near the Bank of Japan 2% target (for core inflation). But we know that.
Bitcoin lost some more ground after its drop during the US timezone.
Gold down on the Blinken-Lavrov news:
