- Japan Finance Minister Suzuki: Continues to watch FX moves with high sense of urgency
- Federal Reserve Chair Powell headlines Fed speakers Friday, also Jefferson, Barr, Bostic
- China state banks seen buying yuan in onshore FX market
- Bank of Japan Governor Ueda says BOJ JGB holdings will remain at current levels for now
- ECB chief economist Philip Lane is speaking on inflation and monetary policy on Friday
- Fitch Ratings says Australian mortgage arrears at highest since the pandemic began
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 7.1004 (vs. estimate at 7.2147 )
- Japan finance minister Suzuki verbal intervention again
- Vitol is seeing increased demand for oil from shipping and also from aviation
- UK data - GfK Consumer Confidence for March -21 (vs. expected -19 & prior -21)
- Japan February headline CPI 2.8% vs. 2.2% in January
- Wall Street Journal says China Xi to meet US CEOs in Beijing next week - a "Rare meeting"
- Here's a $90K Bitcoin forecast - halving, ETF flows cited
- Former Goldman Sachs commodities head "I want to be long oil"
- BlackRock CEO Fink says Japan stocks have 'more upside' amid weak yen
- US Treasury Sec Yellen says sees few real challenges to the dollar as reserve currency
- New Zealand February trade data shows exports and imports both climbing from January
- South Korea wholesale inflation (PPI) for February +0.3% m/m (prior +0.5%)
- Forexlive Americas FX news wrap for Feb 21: US dollar closes higher on higher yields/data
- Note for the diary - Federal Reserve Chair Powell to speak on March 29
- Swiss National Bank rate cut has undermined the CHF, demoted to funding currency of choice
- US stock market close: Record closes but early enthusiasm sags
- Trade ideas thread - Friday, 22 March, insightful charts, technical analysis, ideas
The US dollar strengthened further here today, with only the JPY and CHF putting up much of a fight. Of course, both of these two had been hit hard before today, with the Swiss franc plunging on Thursday after the Swiss National Bank cut interest rates and the yen plunging when the Bank of Japan did the opposite and raised interest rates! The key difference between the two impacts was the SNB cut came as a surprise to markets while the BOJ move was very, very well telegraphed.
USD/CHF has, so far, topped out around 0.8992 and USD/JPY around 151.85.
Elsewhere in major FX the USD has hit EUR, AUD, NZD, GBP and CAD all lower. The Chinese yuan is a stand out loser, though, with onshore (CNY) and offshore(CNH) losing around 200 points or so. Chinese state banks have been spotted intervening in an effort to try to support the onshore yuan, selling USD/CNY. Mainland and Hong Kong equity markets fell.
In data flow today the notable item was Japanese February CPI, which came in mainly higher than in January (see bullets above). New Zealand trade data for February reported a smaller trade deficit than in January (again, see bullets above).
Bank of Japan Governor Ueda spoke, but didn’t really remark on the currency like Suzuki did.
USD/offshore yuan shook off USD/CNY intervention:
