It was a session of waiting for the two central banks on the agenda, the Bank of Japan and the Reserve Bank of Australia. I expected the BOJ first but we got the RBA pipping them.

Both the RBA and BOJ announced the expected outcomes.

The RBA left its cash rate unchanged and changed wording in its statement to less hawkish, even a touch dovish. AUD fell after the RBA.

The Bank of Japan announced an end to negative rates, an end to YCC, to discontinue purchases of ETFs and J-REITs, and more (see bullets above). The yen weakened after the extremely well-telegraphed announcement. We’ll see how it plays out now over coming hours. Ueda’s press conference is next, due at 0630 GMT.

In other news, US Congressional leaders and the White House reached a handshake deal to fund the government through September 30.

The response of the yen after the first rate hike in 17 years and the move from negative rates after 8 years has been subdued so far:

usdyen boj hike 19 March 2024