- CBA stick with its call for a June 2022 RBA rate hike
- Bank of Japan Governor Kuroda says will keep easing until inflation target achieved
- G7 foreign ministers will meet on Thursday 17 March 2022 on Ukraine
- Toyota and Nissan are both reported to have halted production at some Japan plants
- Japan PM Kishida says mindful that there is public concern about rising prices
- France's Foreign Minister says Russia is only pretending to negotiate with Ukraine
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY central rate at 6.3406 (vs. estimate at 6.3298)
- The RBA March 2022 'Bulletin' is out now - link
- AUD/USD above 0.7300 following the very strong February jobs report
- Australia Feb Employment change +77.4K (expected +37K) & Unemployment 4.0% (expected 4.1%)
- Bank of England monetary policy meeting Thursday 17 March 2022 - preview
- Japan Core Machinery Orders for January -2.0% m/m (expected -2.2%)
- US Senate Banking Committee vote to approve Powell, Brainard, Jefferson
- HKMA hikes its base rate by 25bps following the FOMC hike on Wednesday
- South Korea threatens to intervene in the FX market
- UK MoD says Russia using weapons more likely to cause civilian casualties
- India is looking to buy 15m barrels of Russian oil
- ICYMI - Iran released two British hostages - seen as a positive for a potential nuke deal
- UN Security Council's Western members ask for an emergency Ukraine meeting Thursday
- NZ data - Q4 GDP +3.0% q/q (vs. expected 3.2%)
- Australian jobs report is due Thursday 17 March 2022 - preview
- Thursday 17 March 2022 is Bank of England day - what to expect
- Doubleline's Gundlach says he would take Bitcoin over gold until the next FOMC meeting
- Trade ideas thread - Thursday 17 March 2022
The lead-in to Asia:
Today was the Asian timezone digesting the long-anticipated Federal Open Market Committee rate hike and the market response (USD down, stocks up). Chinese equities here continued to benefit also from the supportive measures announced on Wednesday from China (ICYMI: Chinese equities bounce back strongly on the day ... amid some positive remarks by China vice premier Liu He here )
Fresh news flow was very light indeed but on the data front, we got very, very strong jobs numbers from Australia (February report, see bullets above). Even before the strong data we had Morgan Stanley shifting forward their forecast for a rate hike to August from November and Citi projecting 3 RBA rate hikes in 2022, beginning in August. Since the data CBA have reiterated their projection of a June 2022 Reserve Bank of Australia rate hike and RBC have joined them, also tipping a June lift-off (from previously forecasting August) for the RBA.
AUD/USD has traded above 0.7300 after the release and is, as I post, consolidating its gains above the figure. AUD was not alone in its strength against the dollar though, the gains are broad with EUR, GBP, NZD, yen all higher.
Bitcoin has traded flat (for it) circa $41K while gold has added a few $ to above $1935.
AUD/USD:
