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Forex News – BoJ holds stimulus as Japan’s PM dissolves parliament

Posted on November 19, 2014 at 1:07 pm GMT

On Wednesday the Bank of Japan released a monetary policy statement which showed the central bank’s massive stimulus program was kept unchanged as widely expected. The BoJ committed to continuing its massive stimulus measures by purchasing more government bonds in order to increase the monetary base at a pace of 80 trillion yen a year. These stimulus measures were renewed last month when the Bank surprised markets by announcing its decision to expand its quantitative easing program from 60-70 trillion [..]

Forex News – UK inflation meets expectations; sterling mixed

Posted on November 18, 2014 at 1:35 pm GMT

UK inflation numbers were released today and they were in line with economists’ expectations of a rise of 1.3% year-on-year. In actual fact, inflation slightly accelerated from the previous month’s 1.2% annual rate. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, held constant at 1.5%. Although transportation costs fell, the drop was smaller than a year ago and this actually pushed inflation up. The Office for National Statistics gave the reductions in motor fuel prices and air tickets as the main [..]

Forex News – Big miss in Japanese Q3 GDP leads to fresh high in dollar / yen

Posted on November 17, 2014 at 1:46 pm GMT

The news that the Japanese GDP for the third quarter contracted by 0.4% quarter-on-quarter instead of expanding by 0.5% as economists expected, was a huge negative surprise. Technically Japan is now in its third recession in 4 years, as the second and third quarters both posted negative growth rates. The second quarter’s growth rate was revised negatively from -1.8% to -1.9%. The second quarter was when the sales tax was raised. Granted the contraction of the 3rd quarter was mainly the [..]

Forex News – Slightly worse than expected employment, dovish Carney hit Sterling

Posted on November 12, 2014 at 1:52 pm GMT

It was a busy day for the UK currency as the release of the monthly employment data as well as the quarterly Bank of England Inflation Report and the press conference by the Bank’s Governor Mark Carney took place. Firstly, Unemployment with the ILO definition missed predictions for a drop to 5.9% from 6% the previous period. This combined with the slower growth in employment (+112 thousand the quarter-on-quarter change) and the constant claimant count rate of 2.8%, suggests that [..]

Forex News – Yen drops on government decision reports, ignores current account

Posted on November 11, 2014 at 1:17 pm GMT

The Japanese currency slipped to a fresh 7-year low today, on improving risk appetite and reports that an early Japanese election could be called and that a planned sales tax increase next year would be delayed. An early election – possibly before the end of the year – would most probably lead to a renewal of Shinzo Abe’s mandate for 4 additional years and that would prevent the further erosion of his popularity if the economy fails to rebound. The [..]

Forex News – Week ahead will be key for sterling; Eurozone growth also on tap

Posted on November 7, 2014 at 3:00 pm GMT

Next week will most probably be quieter after this week’s key events such as the ECB meeting and the US employment report. The pound will see the UK employment report as well as the Bank of England report on inflation, while in the Eurozone investors will catch a glimpse of the flash estimate of its growth rate for the third quarter. Important data will also come out of China such as inflation, industrial output and retail sales. Starting with the [..]

Forex News – Commodity currencies hurt by recent rout in raw material prices

Posted on November 6, 2014 at 12:00 pm GMT

A drop in commodity prices recently has hurt the currencies of producers of such raw materials. The CRB commodity index has dropped 14.5% from its peak in late June and although it is once again not far from the level where it started the year, it could prove a significant factor for the specific countries that depend a lot on commodity exports. Two prime examples are the antipodean currencies of Australia and New Zealand. Australia’s biggest export is iron ore, [..]

Forex News – Reserve Bank of Australia happy to sit back for now

Posted on November 4, 2014 at 11:11 am GMT

The news from the monthly Reserve Bank of Australia meeting earlier today was in line with market expectations as the RBA left interest rates steady as well as issued a similar policy statement to the previous meeting. The benchmark RBA cash rate has remained at 2.5% since August of 2013 and according to market expectations, appears likely to remain the same until well into 2015. The RBA also maintained its mantra that the aussie remains overvalued according to most fundamental [..]

Forex News – Chinese PMI business surveys underwhelm the market

Posted on November 3, 2014 at 12:52 pm GMT

Saturday and Monday saw the release of some key Chinese PMI figures, both from the official and the private sector. Overall the figures showed a mild slowdown – particularly the official sector numbers – as the Chinese economy is facing a number of challenges which are slowing it down. The Chinese official manufacturing PMI from the National Bureau of Statistics fell to 50.8 in October compared to 51.1 the previous month and the 51.2 expectation by economists. In the Services [..]

Forex News – Week ahead promises developments because of ECB, US payrolls

Posted on October 31, 2014 at 1:33 pm GMT

Next week will provide a significant update on the health of the US labor market, while the ECB Governing Council will convene in Frankfurt and Mario Draghi’s press conference will be closely watched as always. There will also be some important news out of Australia – both regarding the labor market and the decision of the Reserve Bank of Australia. A series of PMI indicators out of the UK may show how the economy there is shaping up for the [..]

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