- Fed speakers on Wednesday include Goolsbee, Barr and Bostic
- ECB policy setters de Guindos and Cipollone will be speaking on Wednesday
- Japan fin min Suzuki again - closely watching FX market moves with strong sense of urgency
- BOJ Ueda not facing much opposition to tightening:“People probably think enough is enough”
- A group of US members of Congress will visit Taiwan next week
- Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey will speak in Parliament (Lords) on Wednesday
- More than half of the world’s commercial shipbuilding output came from China last year
- Bank of Canada Deputy Governor Rhys Mendes is speaking on Wednesday
- Former Apple engineer gets prison for stealing information to go work for Chinese startup
- Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Bullock will speak in parliament again on Thursday
- Hong Kong's 10 major housing estates recorded zero transactions over the four-day holiday
- Morgan Stanley have raised their price forecasts for Brent crude oil
- Hedge fund Doubleline's Gundlach says Federal Reserve may not cut at all this year
- Japan finance minister Suzuki says rapid FX moves are undesirable
- Goldman Sachs' "bottom line" on the US CPI report is an uncomfortable read
- Verbal intervention from Japan - Kanda says recent yen moves are "rapid"
- Jeff Bezos has sold around $2 billion worth of Amazon stock in recent days
- Australian Treasury head speaking on inflation and the economy - live link
- New Zealand data: January retail sales bounce back from December slump
- Forexlive Americas FX news wrap: Hot CPI sends a cold shudder through the market
- New Zealand data: January Food price index +0.9% m/m (vs. prior -0.1%)
- Oil - private survey of inventory shows headline build much, much larger than was expected
- US stocks move lower led by Russell 2000. Worst day for small cap stocks since June 2022
- Trade ideas thread - Wednesday, 14 February, insightful charts, technical analysis, ideas
Japanese Finance Minister Suzuki and his Vice Finance Minister for International Affairs Kanda (the official who will instruct the BOJ to intervene, when he judges it necessary. Often referred to as Japan's 'top currency diplomat') both made yen-supportive comments today. While Suzuki’s were nothing out of the ordinary, Kanda was more aggressive, saying on the 10 drop (vs. the USD) over “a month or so” that “such a rapid move is not good for the economy”. The keyword here is “rapid”, which is indicative of the Ministry taking the decline seriously. Kanda added
- "We are always watching the market 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to prepare for anything that may happen, just like natural disasters."
- "We are not targeting specific currency levels, but we are comprehensively taking various factors into account, such as that how rapid the moves are and how far away they deviate from fundamentals."
USD/JPY has not done a lot in response. It has dribbled lower on the session to around 150.45 as I update.
On the news wires it was quiet. An item of interest was that Mike Gallagher, Chairman of the special committee on the Chinese Communist Party in the House of Representatives of the American Congress, together with a delegation of US Congresspeople, is going to visit Taiwan on February 21. China opposes visits to Taiwan such as this. While its holidays there this week I suspect a response if not the week, then next.
In the session ahead we have speakers on the schedule:
- from the European Central Bank, including Germany’s Bundesbank President (and European Central Bank Governing Council member) Nagel
- Bank of England Governor Bailey
- Bank of Canada Deputy Governor Mendes
- the Federal Reserve’s Goolsbee, Barr and Bostic
And early in the Asia session tomorrow Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Bullock will speak from parliament again.
There is a packed economic calendar ahead in the UK and Europe:
