The Pentagon confirmed that the US had launched an airstrike on a facility in eastern Syria used by Iranian-backed militias, in retaliation for what has been a growing number of attacks on bases housing US troops in the region for the past several weeks. The strike was on a weapons storage facility linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. The news contributed to the small retrace higher for oil prices after Wednesday’s further slump.

From China today were inflation data for October, still very subdued, and indeed both CPI and PPI came in negative. China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) pointed at softening food prices as the big contributor.

We had comments hit the wires from Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Patrick Harker. There was nothing to surprise traders in his remarks with

  • ‘higher for longer’,
  • need to assess the impact of past rate hikes,
  • moves ahead will depend on the data,
  • and there is no sign of any near term rate cuts

all featuring.

While on central banks, an ex-BOJ official, former executive director in charge of monetary policy during the pandemic (and also once head economist at the Bank of Japan) Eiji Maeda said he thinks the Bank could end its negative interest rate policy as soon as January “if it judges that inflationary pressure is rising" (see bullets above for more). USD/JPY barely responded.

Major FX rates traded in small ranges only with little to prompt movement crossing during the session.

brent oil wrap chart 09 November 2023