There was no data of significance from the session today, and little news of note.

We did have the US vice President debate, but this passed with little more than partisan bickering. The secret to these debates is to approach them with very, very low expectations for anything of substance; avoid disappointment. On the positive side the two were polite to each other, mainly.

NZD/USD was a mover on the session. We had ongoing forecasts of a 50bp rate cut to come from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand at their meeting on October 9. There was little else from NZ.

USD/JPY traded higher. Japan has a new Economy Minister, Ryosei Akazawa, who made the noob mistake of speaking honestly. Don’t be too concerned, this will pass. Akazawa dialled back support for ongoing Bank of Japan rate hikes with comments such as:

  • it's not necessarily true that Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is positive about further interest rate hikes by the Bank
  • "Our top priority is to ensure that Japan completely exit from deflation"
  • exiting deflation would take some time
  • "Ishiba's (previous) comments on the need for monetary policy normalization have various conditions attached"

These are obviously yen negative comments, at the margin, and the currency has lost ground today.

Mainland China remained closed for holidays. Hong Kong was open and stocks there skyrocketed yet again.

usdyen wrap chart 02 October 2024 2