- BOJ announce no change to monetary policy, as expected
- US President Biden and China's President Xi will speak on Friday 18 March 2022, 9am US ET
- China - PBOC interest rate setting is coming up on Monday, March 21
- Moderna asks FDA to authorize second coronavirus booster shot for adults
- Oil price on the move - higher
- China's foreign ministry: China, Russia met on March 17 to discuss security cooperation
- US media report Putin has placed some of his intelligence officials under house arrest
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 6.3425 (vs. estimate at 6.3359)
- Five districts in China's Shenzen have resumed factory production
- Australia says it has now covered the majority of Russia's banking assets with sanctions
- Goldman Sachs are staying with their forecast for seven 25bp FOMC hikes in 2022
- Coronavirus - China says Shenzen business allowed to reopen (No timetable yet announced)
- Japan inflation for February, headline overall CPI +0.9% y/y (vs. expected 0.3%)
- UK Defence ministry update on Russia's war on Ukraine, highlight Russian logistic problems
- GBP to fall under 1.30 on dovish pivot from Bank of England
- RBA Governor Lowe is appearing again next week - Tuesday March 22
- UK PM Boris Johnson said to be open to attending European Council meeting next week
- More on the potential of a Russian debt default
- S&P lowers Russia rating even further
- US officials say Iran nuclear deal talks are down to the last issues
- Russian media report that Zelensky and Putin 'could' meet, in 'coming weeks'
The lead in to the Asia session:
Ahead of the Bank of Japan policy statement we saw some moves for major FX but most of them were round trips. EUR/USD, for example, moved back towards it overnight high, but fell a little short of 1.1120 before retracing back to circa 1.1090 and then below. It was a similar pattern for AUD/USD,NZD/USD, GBP/USD. USD/CAD has been range bound despite the rally for oil futures during the session.
Ahead of the BOJ USD/JPY net added a few points.
News flow was very light. On the data front we had above expected headline inflation from Japan (February data) but below-expected CPI once food and energy prices were removed (the ex food and energy CPI is the closest to the US ‘core’ CPI measure)
The BOJ monetary policy decision came in as exp[ected, the main policy planks were left unchanged (see bullets above).
USD/JPY showed little immediate response to the statement after gaining a few popints in the hours preceding:
