Sunset Market Commentary

Markets Yields this morning cautiously continued the downtrend after Powell’s rather mild assessment at the press conference on Wednesday. The Fed chair indicated that, despite disinflation making little progress of late, keeping the policy rate a while longer at current level will likely still suffice to return inflation to target over time. An unexpected and […]

April Showers on the Jobs Market

The employment situation report for April kicked off the second quarter with signs that the labor market is cooling. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 175K in the month, below consensus expectations for a 240K gain, while the unemployment rate rose a tenth to 3.9%. Meantime, average hourly earnings growth slowed and, at just 3.9% year-over-year, is not too far above the 3.3% average that prevailed in 2019.

USD/JPY Volatile After Inflation, BoJ Meeting

The Japanese yen is swinging sharply on Friday. In the European session, USD/JPY is trading at 156.46, up 0.52%.

Cooler Bitcoin

Bitcoin under pressure: Bitcoin has been losing value (0.7%) since early Friday, reaching $64.2K, despite rising 1.2% the day before. The currency continues to correct, remaining at the bottom of the range set in March. The RSI is signalling a possible further decline in price.

Australian Dollar Extends Gains as PPI Surges

The Australian dollar has posted four straight winning sessions this week and is in positive territory on Friday. In the European session, AUD/USD is trading at 0.6534, up 0.24%. The Aussie has powered higher this week, climbing 1.82%.

False Alert with Yen Interventions?

Even though the Bank of Japan left the key rate and parameters of the QE programme unchanged, the central bank’s inaction increased the pressure on the national currency. This resulted in USDJPY reaching 156.80 and EURJPY reaching 2007–2008 levels, which started a sharp decline due to the global financial crisis and related deleveraging.

Sunset Market Commentary

The yen showed some huge intraday swings today. USD/JPY rose beyond 156 and was moving quickly towards 157 next. A violent countermove then pushed it back to the 155 figure only to trade back at the highest level of the day (and 34 years) just south of 157. It’s the kind of move you would expect on news the BoJ is “asking for quotes” in the market, typically the first step of an actual FX intervention.

Fed Preview

The Fed is widely expected to maintain the Fed Funds Rate unchanged next week by both markets and analyst consensus.

Week Ahead – Hawkish Risk as Fed and NFP on Tap, Eurozone Data Eyed Too

The upcoming week looks sure to be an action-packed one for the US dollar, as besides an FOMC meeting and the April jobs report, there’s a flurry of other data on the US agenda that will give traders little time to rest.

Fed Faces Dilemma Amid Sticky Inflation and Slowing Economy

When they last met, Fed officials left interest rates untouched as it was widely expected, and although they revised up their growth and inflation projections, they continued pointing to three quarter-point rate cuts by the end of the year, which served as a disappointment to those expecting less due to stickier than expected inflation.