RBA on Hold, Ruling Nothing In or Out

As was widely expected, the RBA Board left the cash rate on hold at its late-March meeting, at 4.35%. The language of the media release and press conference confirms that the Board is most likely on hold for a while yet.

USD/JPY: JPY Continued to Sell Off After BoJ Put Historic End to Negative Rate Regime

Bank of Japan (BoJ) has not created a “shock” to the market participants as it ended its short-term negative interest rates today; it raised its overnight rate to 0% to 0.1% from -0.1% and scrapped other unorthodox quantitative easing measures such as the “Yield Curve Control” (YCC) programme on the 10-year Japanese Government Bond (JGB), and discontinued its purchases in equity index exchange-traded funds, and J-REITS  in today’s BoJ’s monetary policy decision outcome.

RIP NIRP. BoJ Ditches the World's Last Negative Policy Rate

RIP NIRP. The Bank of Japan ditched the world’s last negative policy rate this morning, raising it from -0.1% to a target range between 0% and 0.1%. The first hike since 2007 ended an 8-year experiment of sub-zero rates. It also scrapped the (soft) 1% cap on the 10-year yield and formally ended ETF and J-REIT purchases. The decisions followed last week’s Rengo wage negotiation outcome which offered the BoJ the final piece of the puzzle.

Crypto Market Deepens Correction

Bitcoin is down 5% after falling to $64.4K. That’s its lowest level in two weeks and 13.5% below its high. A close below $65.5K would signal a move to a deeper level – the classic 61.8% retracement of the rally with a potential target near $60K.

Bank of Japan Ends the Era of Negative Interest Rates

The Bank of Japan has not raised interest rates for 17 years. For 8 years, it was in the negative zone. But today there was a dramatic shift in monetary policy — the Bank of Japan announced a decision to increase the interest rate from -0.1% to 0.1%.

Aussie Slides After RBA's Pause

The Reserve Bank of Australia maintained the cash rate at 4.35% for a fourth straight time at today’s meeting. A pause was widely expected, which left the focus on the rate statement and Governor Bullock’s follow-up press conference.

Canada: Inflation Surprises With a Downtick in February

February's inflation report was a little bit of good news for Canadians. After stalling through the second half of last year, that is two months of improvement on the Bank of Canada's key core inflation gauges. However, the battle isn't won yet, and we now expect the Bank of Canada will leave the overnight rate unchanged until July, as outlined in our new forecast released today.

Limited Appetite Ahead of US CPI, Bitcoin at Record

The week started with limited appetite in US stock and a fresh record for Bitcoin. Major US indices were flat on Monday’s trading session. The S&P 500 slid 0.11% as sentiment in technology stocks was mixed. Nvidia tumbled 2% yesterday, but Google gained nearly 2%. The US dollar recovered the post-US jobs data losses, the US 2-year yield stabilized near a touch above the 4.50% level and the 10-year near the 4% mark ahead of today’s all-important US CPI data.

Sterling Loses Ground on Just-Below Consensus Labour Market Data

Sterling this morning loses ground on just-below consensus labour market data. The unemployment rate ticked up to 3.9% with average weekly earning rising by 5.6% 3M/YoY. February job growth rose by 20k following a downward revision in January. EUR/GBP moves back to 0.8550 after last week’s failed test of 0.85 support.

GBP/USD Loses Ground on Soft Employment Report

The UK labor market has remained resilient despite elevated interest rates but is showing signs of cracks, based on today’s employment release.