IC Markets Asia Fundamental Forecast | 20 September 2024
What happened in the U.S. session?
After reducing its official bank rate by 25 basis points in August, the Bank of England (BoE) held the rate steady at 5.0% at yesterday’s monetary policy announcement. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted by a majority of 8 to 1 to maintain the rate at current levels and also voted unanimously to reduce the stock of UK government bond purchases held for monetary policy purposes, and financed by the issuance of central bank reserves, by £100B over the next 12 months to a total of £558B. This latest decision has been guided by the need to squeeze persistent inflationary pressures out of the system so as to return CPI inflation to the 2% target. Cable was hovering around 1.3260 prior to the release of this announcement before proceeding to experience a rollercoaster of a session as it initially spiked as high as 1.3314 and then reversed sharply to dive to an overnight low of 1.3219 – it ended this session by settling around 1.3280.
Moving over to stateside, unemployment claims edged lower from 231K in the prior week to 219K in the latest reading. Claims have stabilized in August and look to be trending lower, alleviating some concerns surrounding the strength of the labour market. The 4-week average now stands at 228K while the 12-week has a reading of 233K. This robust data point provided the dollar index (DXY) with a much-needed lift as it had reversed from a high of 101.47 during yesterday’s Asia session to tumble as low as 100.51 as European markets came online. The DXY jumped in the immediate aftermath of the claims announcement to momentarily rise above 101 before the dollar bears took control once more.
What does it mean for the Asia Session?
The Bank of Japan (BoJ) wraps things up with the final central bank announcement of this week today. This central bank will release its monetary policy statement followed by Governor Kazuo Ueda’s press conference after. As usual, the BoJ does not provide the exact schedule of the release of the statement as well as the commencement of the press conference but traders can expect the statement to be dropped around 4 or 5 am GMT followed by the press conference which usually starts a couple of hours after. After raising its key policy rate to 0.25% at July’s meeting, the BoJ looks to maintain rates at current levels. Should markets receive a statement that is fairly balanced while Governor Ueda remains somewhat neutral, the yen could face selling pressures – a result that would lift USD/JPY today.
The Dollar Index (DXY)
Key news events today
FOMC Member Harker Speaks (6:00 pm GMT)
What can we expect from DXY today?
Following the FOMC meeting on Wednesday, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Patrick Harker is due to speak at Tulane University in New Orleans where he could shed further light on the growing ‘disagreement’ among Fed officials on the size of rate cuts at the upcoming meetings in November and December. Should he drop any clues on direction for future monetary policy action, the dollar is bound to face higher volatility later today.
Central Bank Notes:
- The Federal Funds Rate target range was reduced by 50 basis points to 4.75% to 5.00% on 18th September in an 11 to 1 vote with Governor Michelle Bowman dissenting, preferring to cut rates by a smaller amount.
- The Committee seeks to achieve maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2% over the longer run and has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2%, and judges that the risks to achieving its employment and inflation goals are roughly in balance.
- The economic outlook is uncertain, and the Committee is attentive to the risks to both sides of its dual mandate.
- Recent indicators suggest that economic activity has continued to expand at a solid pace while job gains have slowed, and the unemployment rate has moved up but remains low.
- Inflation has made further progress toward the Committee’s 2% objective but remains somewhat elevated.
- In considering any adjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate, the Committee will carefully assess incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks and does not expect it will be appropriate to reduce the target range until it has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2%.
- In assessing the appropriate stance of monetary policy, the Committee will continue to monitor the implications of incoming information for the economic outlook and would be prepared to adjust the stance of monetary policy as appropriate if risks emerge that could impede the attainment of the Committee’s goals.
- In addition, the Committee will continue reducing its holdings of Treasury securities and agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities. Beginning in June, the Committee slowed the pace of decline of its securities holdings by reducing the monthly redemption cap on Treasury securities from $60 billion to $25 billion.
- The Committee will maintain the monthly redemption cap on agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities at $35 billion and will reinvest any principal payments in excess of this cap into Treasury securities.
- Next meeting runs from 6 to 7 November 2024.
Next 24 Hours Bias
Medium Bearish
Gold (XAU)
Key news events today
FOMC Member Harker Speaks (6:00 pm GMT)
What can we expect from Gold today?
Following the FOMC meeting on Wednesday, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Patrick Harker is due to speak at Tulane University in New Orleans where he could shed further light on the growing ‘disagreement’ among Fed officials on the size of rate cuts at the upcoming meetings in November and December. Should he drop any clues on direction for future monetary policy action, gold prices are bound to face higher volatility later today.
Next 24 Hours Bias
Medium Bullish
The Australian Dollar (AUD)
Key news events today
No major news events.
What can we expect from AUD today?
Waning demand for the greenback drove the Aussie to an overnight high of 0.6839. This currency pair pulled back towards 0.6800 as Asian markets came online – these are the support and resistance levels for today.
Support: 0.6730
Resistance: 0.6850
Central Bank Notes:
- The RBA kept the cash rate target unchanged at 4.35% on 6th August, marking the sixth consecutive pause.
- Inflation has fallen substantially since its peak in 2022, as higher interest rates have been working to bring aggregate demand and supply closer towards balance but it still remains above the midpoint of the 2 to 3% target range.
- The CPI rose by 3.9% over the year to the June quarter, demonstrating that inflation is proving persistent. In year-ended terms, underlying inflation has now been above the midpoint of the target for 11 consecutive quarters while quarterly underlying CPI inflation has fallen very little over the past year.
- The central forecasts set out in the latest SMP are for inflation to return to the target range of 2 to 3% in late 2025 and approach the midpoint in 2026. This represents a slightly slower return to target than forecast in May, based on estimates that the gap between aggregate demand and supply in the economy is larger than previously thought.
- Momentum in economic activity has been weak, as evidenced by slow growth in GDP, a rise in the unemployment rate and reports that many businesses are under pressure. In addition, there is a risk that household consumption picks up more slowly than expected, resulting in continued subdued output growth and a noticeable deterioration in the labour market.
- Inflation in underlying terms remains too high, and the latest projections show that it will be some time yet before inflation is sustainably in the target range while recent data have reinforced the need to remain vigilant to upside risks to inflation and the Board is not ruling anything in or out.
- Policy will need to be sufficiently restrictive until the Board is confident that inflation is moving sustainably towards the target range and will rely upon the incoming data and the evolving assessment of risks to guide its decisions.
- Next meeting is on 5 November 2024.
Next 24 Hours Bias
Medium Bullish
The Kiwi Dollar (NZD)
Key news events today
No major news events.
What can we expect from NZD today?
With the U.S. dollar bears taking the driving seat once more, the Kiwi jumped to an overnight high of 0.6268 before retreating away from this level. This currency pair was trading around 0.6240 at the beginning of the Asia session – these are the support and resistance levels for today.
Support: 0.6120
Resistance: 0.6300
Central Bank Notes:
- The Monetary Policy Committee agreed to reduce the OCR by 25 basis points, bringing it down to 5.25% in August as inflation converges on target.
- The Committee is confident that inflation is returning to within its 1-3% target band as surveyed inflation expectations, firms’ pricing behaviour, headline inflation, and a variety of core inflation measures are moving consistent with low and stable inflation.
- Economic growth remains below trend and inflation is declining across advanced economies – imported inflation into New Zealand has declined to be more consistent with pre-pandemic levels.
- Services inflation remains elevated but is also expected to continue to decline, both at home and abroad, in line with increased spare economic capacity.
- Consumer price inflation in New Zealand is expected to remain near the target mid-point over the foreseeable future.
- A broad range of high-frequency indicators point to a material weakening in domestic economic activity in recent months – these include various survey measures of business activity, electronic card transactions, vehicle traffic, house sales, filled jobs, and job vacancies; these indicators collectively provide a consistent signal that the economy contracted in recent months.
- The pace of further easing will depend on the Committee’s confidence that pricing behaviour remains consistent with a low inflation environment, and that inflation expectations are anchored around the 2% target.
- Next meeting is on 9 October 2024.
Next 24 Hours Bias
Medium Bullish
The Japanese Yen (JPY)
Key news events today
BoJ Monetary Policy Statement (Tentative)
BoJ Press Conference (Tentative)
What can we expect from JPY today?
The Bank of Japan (BoJ) will release its monetary policy statement this morning followed by Governor Kazuo Ueda’s press conference after. As usual, the BoJ does not provide the exact schedule of the release of the statement as well as the commencement of the press conference but traders can expect the statement to be dropped around 4 or 5 am GMT followed by the press conference which usually starts a couple of hours after. After raising its key policy rate to 0.25% at July’s meeting, the BoJ looks to maintain rates at current levels. Should markets receive a statement that is fairly balanced while Governor Ueda remains somewhat neutral, the yen could face selling pressures – a result that would lift USD/JPY today.
Central Bank Notes:
- The Policy Board of the Bank of Japan decided, by a 7-2 majority vote, to set the following guideline for money market operations for the intermeeting period and decided on the following measures:
- The Bank will encourage the uncollateralized overnight call rate to remain at around 0.25% while reducing its purchase amount of Japanese government bonds (JGB) by a unanimous vote.
- The Bank decided, by a unanimous vote, on a plan to reduce the amount of its monthly outright purchases of JGBs so that it will be about 3 trillion yen in January-March 2026; the amount will be cut down by about 400 billion yen each calendar quarter in principle.
- The year-on-year rate of increase in the CPI (all items less fresh food) is likely to be at around 2.5% for fiscal 2024 and then be at around 2% for fiscal 2025 and 2026.
- Meanwhile, underlying CPI inflation is expected to increase gradually, since it is projected that the output gap will improve and that medium- to long-term inflation expectations will rise with a virtuous cycle between wages and prices continuing to intensify.
- In the second half of the projection period, it is likely to be at a level that is generally consistent with the price stability target of 2%.
- Japan’s economy is likely to keep growing at a pace above its potential growth rate, with overseas economies continuing to grow moderately and as a virtuous cycle from income to spending gradually intensifies against the background of factors such as accommodative financial conditions.
- Next meeting is on 20 September 2024.
Next 24 Hours Bias
Weak Bullish
The Euro (EUR)
Key news events today
ECB President Lagarde Speaks (3:00 pm GMT)
What can we expect from EUR today?
ECB President Christine Lagarde will be speaking at the Michel Camdessus Central Banking Lecture in Washington D.C. following three major central bank announcements this week i.e. the Federal Reserve, Bank of England and Bank of Japan. Traders will be keen to hear what she has to say on the outlook for future monetary policy action by the ECB in the aftermath of the respective actions taken by her fellow central bank compatriots.
Central Bank Notes:
- The Governing Council today decided to reduce the three key ECB interest rates on 12th September, after holding rates steady in July.
- Accordingly, the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will be decreased to 3.65%, 3.90% and 3.50% respectively.
- Recent inflation data have come in broadly as expected, and the latest ECB staff projections see headline inflation averaging 2.5% in 2024, 2.2% in 2025 and 1.9% in 2026.
- For core inflation, the projections for 2024 and 2025 have been revised up slightly, as services inflation has been higher than expected. At the same time, staff continue to expect a rapid decline in core inflation, from 2.9% this year to 2.3% in 2025 and 2.0% in 2026.
- ECB staff projections forecast that the economy will grow by 0.8% in 2024, rising to 1.3% in 2025 and 1.5% in 2026 which is a slight downward revision compared with the June projections, mainly owing to a weaker contribution from domestic demand over the next few quarters.
- The Eurosystem no longer reinvests all of the principal payments from maturing securities purchased under the pandemic emergency purchase programme (PEPP), reducing the PEPP portfolio by €7.5 billion per month on average and the Governing Council intends to discontinue reinvestments under the PEPP at the end of 2024.
- The Council is determined to ensure that inflation returns to its 2% medium-term target in a timely manner and will keep policy rates sufficiently restrictive for as long as necessary to achieve this aim and is not pre-committing to a particular rate path.
- Next meeting is on 17 October 2024.
Next 24 Hours Bias
Weak Bullish
The Swiss Franc (CHF)
Key news events today
No major news events.
What can we expect from CHF today?
Weaker demand for the dollar caused USD/CHF to fall under 0.8500 during yesterday’s session. This currency pair was trading around 0.8470 as Asian markets came online – these are the support and resistance levels for today.
Support: 0.8430
Resistance: 0.8550
Central Bank Notes:
- The SNB eased monetary policy by lowering its key policy rate by 25 basis points for the second consecutive meeting, going from 1.50% to 1.25% in June.
- The underlying inflationary pressure has decreased again compared to the previous quarter but inflation had risen slightly since the last monetary policy assessment, and stood at 1.4% in May.
- The inflation forecast puts average annual inflation at 1.3% for 2024, 1.1% for 2025 and 1.0% for 2026, based on the assumption that the SNB policy rate is 1.25% over the entire forecast horizon.
- Swiss GDP growth was moderate in the first quarter of 2024 with the services sector continuing to expand, while manufacturing stagnated.
- Growth is likely to remain moderate in Switzerland in the coming quarters as the SNB anticipates GDP growth of around 1% this year while currently expecting growth of around 1.5% for 2025.
- Next meeting is on 26 September 2024.
Next 24 Hours Bias
Weak Bullish
The Pound (GBP)
Key news events today
Retail Sales (6:00 am GMT)
What can we expect from GBP today?
Consumer spending in the U.K. has been mixed throughout 2024 with sales swinging between growth and decline since February. After rising 0.5% MoM in July, sales are expected to notch its second consecutive month of higher sales for the first time this year. Estimates point to a marginal gain of 0.3% and should sales surprise to the upside, it could function as a potential tailwind for the Pound.
Central Bank Notes:
- The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted by a majority of 8 to 1 to maintain Bank Rate at 5.0% while one member preferred to reduce Bank Rate by 25 basis points to 4.75%, on19th September 2024.
- The MPC also voted unanimously to reduce the stock of UK government bond purchases held for monetary policy purposes, and financed by the issuance of central bank reserves, by £100B over the next 12 months to a total of £558B.
- Twelve-month CPI inflation had been 2.2% in August and July, slightly lower than August Report expectations. Consumer core goods and food price inflation had remained subdued as the cost pressures from previous global shocks had unwound further, and producer price levels had been broadly flat while energy prices had continued to drag on CPI inflation.
- Services price inflation had increased to 5.6% in August compared to 5.2% in July and 5.7% in June. This was slightly lower in August than had been expected at the time of the August Report. There had been volatility in a number of services sub-components in the July and August outturns, including accommodation and catering prices and airfares.
- GDP had increased by 0.6% in 2024 Q2, 0.1 percentage points lower than had been expected in the August Monetary Policy Report. That had followed 0.7% growth in Q1, but Bank staff judged that the underlying pace of growth had been somewhat weaker during the first half of the year.
- Headline GDP growth was expected to return to its underlying pace of around 0.3% per quarter in the second half of the year. Based on a broad set of indicators, the MPC judged that the labour market continued to loosen but that it remained tight by historical standards.
- Monetary policy decisions have been guided by the need to squeeze persistent inflationary pressures out of the system so as to return CPI inflation to the 2% target both in a timely manner and on a lasting basis; policy has been acting to ensure that inflation expectations remain well anchored.
- In the absence of material developments, a gradual approach to removing policy restraint remains appropriate while monetary policy will need to continue to remain restrictive for sufficiently long until the risks to inflation returning sustainably to the 2% target in the medium term have dissipated further.
- The Committee continues to monitor closely the risks of inflation persistence and will decide the appropriate degree of monetary policy restrictiveness at each meeting.
- Next meeting is on 7 November 2024.
Next 24 Hours Bias
Weak Bearish
The Canadian Dollar (CAD)
Key news events today
BoC Gov Macklem Speaks (12:15 pm GMT)
Retail Sales (12:30 pm GMT)
What can we expect from CAD today?
Bank of Canada (BoC) Governor Tiff Macklem will be speaking at the National Bureau of Economic Research Economics of Artificial Intelligence Conference in Toronto where he could share further insights on the outlook for future monetary policy action by this central bank. The BoC had reduced its overnight rate by 25 basis points for the third consecutive meeting that took place on the 4th of September. Any further dovish rhetoric is bound to create headwinds for the Loonie.
After declining 0.8% and 0.3% MoM in May and June respectively, Canada’s retail sales are expected to rebound in July to rise 0.5% MoM. Consumer spending has been relatively weak since November 2023 and another miss in sales figures would add further downward pressure on this currency and thus function as a potential boost for USD/CAD.
Central Bank Notes:
- The Bank of Canada reduced its target for the overnight rate by 25 basis points for the third consecutive meeting to 4.25% while continuing its policy of balance sheet normalization on 4th September.
- Canada’s economy grew 2.1% in the second quarter of 2024, led by government spending and business investment.
- This second quarter GDP growth was slightly stronger than forecast in July, but preliminary indicators suggest that economic activity was soft through June and July.
- As expected, inflation slowed further to 2.5% in July. The Bank’s preferred measures of core inflation averaged around 2.5% and the share of components of the consumer price index growing above 3% is roughly at its historical norm.
- High shelter price inflation is still the biggest contributor to total inflation but is starting to slow while inflation also remains elevated in some other services.
- The labour market continues to slow, with little change in employment in recent months. Wage growth, however, remains elevated relative to productivity.
- The Governing Council is carefully assessing these opposing forces on inflation and monetary policy decisions will be guided by incoming information and our assessment of their implications for the inflation outlook.
- The Bank remains resolute in its commitment to restoring price stability for Canadians.
- Next meeting is on 23 October 2024.
Next 24 Hours Bias
Weak Bearish
Oil
Key news events today
No major news events.
What can we expect from Oil today?
Crude oil prices were buoyed by the Federal Reserve’s jumbo rate cut with WTI oil gaining more than 1.6% overnight. This benchmark climbed as high as $71.53 per barrel before taking a breather. However, concerns on slower global demand for this commodity remain while any geo-political escalation in the Middle East keeps traders on their toes – these are the support and resistance levels for today.
Support: 65.50
Resistance: 71.70
Next 24 Hours Bias
Weak Bullish
