- Iran's UN envoy warns any attacks will be met with response
- Goldman Sachs liking Chinese equites, citing valuations (bargains)
- Chinese cities have started releasing lists of real estate projects eligible for funding
- IMF now comments on yen exchange rate - makes case for intervention
- International Monetary Fund (IMF) says it wants policy easing from People's Bank of China
- IMF says it expects Japan's inflation to exceed 2% target until 2025
- AUD/USD extending its losses after lower inflation data
- Treasurer of Australia Chalmers says lower inflation welcome but job not yet complete
- China January Manufacturing PMI 49.2 (vs. 49.2 expected) Services 50.7 (expected 50.6)
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY central rate at 7.1039 (vs. estimate at 7.1727)
- AUD a little lower after encouraging, falling, inflation data
- Australian Q4 headline CPI 4.1% y/y vs 4.3% expected
- Japanese govmt official says January production expected to decline
- USD/JPY back near its overnight low following the latest from the BOJ
- UK businesses confidence at the highest level in nearly two years
- New Zealand data, January business confidence 36.6% vs. 33.2% prior
- BOJ Summary indicates no imminent change of policy
- Japan December Industrial Production (preliminary) +1.8% m/m (vs. expected 2.4%)
- S&P 500 rally to a record high on narrow leadership is “increasing unhealthy” - JP Morgan
- TD Securities suggests automated trading strategies are likely to buy everything this week
- ICYMI - China's industrial profits fell 2.3% in 2023
- SNB head Jordan said Swiss inflation gained in January, but stayed within target range
- Oil - private survey of inventory shows much larger draw than was expected
- Trade ideas thread - Wednesday, 31 January, insightful charts, technical analysis, ideas
- Microsoft and Alphabet earnings/revenues beat expectations. Starbucks, AMD, Stryker too.
- US equity index futures dragged lower by falling stock prices for Alphabet & MSFT
- Forexlive Americas FX news wrap: JOLTS and consumer confidence improve
It was an active day for data in Asia, characterised by a net gain for the US dollar across the majors board.
From Japan today we had the ‘Summary of Opinions’ from the Bank of Japan January meeting (the full minutes of the meeting will follow on March 25). The Summary was sparse with reports on various opinions of individual members but with no guide as to the collective consensus. The usual noises were made about continuing with easy policy, patiently maintaining monetary easing. And that are signs of achieving target inflation.
USD/JPY dropped after the Summary to lows under 147.25 but has since rebounded to be net higher on the session.
The next item of interest was from Australia, where official Q4 2024 inflation fell lower than expected and much lower than in Q3, and indeed to its lowest in two years. The improvement was such that it appears to take further rate hikes from the Reserve Bank of Australia off the table (unless deterioration is once again seen in the future, of course). Its way too early to think of rate cuts though, with pundits and the Treasurer saying there is still work to be done getting back to target (for the RBA this the 2 – 3 % band).
AUD/USD dropped away after the data and is not too far from its session low as I update circa 0.6572. As said in the headline, though, it was a session of US dollar strength more widely. EUR, GBP, CHF, NZD, CAD and JPY are all lower against the big dollar.
From China we had a little improvement for the official National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) PMIs for January. The manufacturing PMI still remains in contraction, its fourth month in a row and for 9 of the past 10 months. USD/CNH is little changed on the session. Chinese equities, both mainland and Hong Kong, are softer again on the day.
US equity index futures fell below their Tuesday RTH lows after earnings releases late in the US afternoon.
