IC Markets Asia Fundamental Forecast | 21 November 2024
What happened in the U.S. session?
Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman’ speech on policymaking at the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches on Wednesday called for a cautious approach on interest rates while saying rate cuts are concerning. Here are a couple of snippets from her opening remarks:
“I would prefer to proceed cautiously in bringing the policy rate down to better assess how far we are from the end point, while recognizing that we have not yet achieved our inflation goal and closely watching the evolution of the labour market.“
“It’s concerning to me that we’re recalibrating policy, but we haven’t yet achieved our inflation goal.“
Her statements reflect the recent acceleration in headline CPI and both headline and core PPI whilst the labour market remains resilient. Governor Bowman was also the lone official who had cast a dissenting vote on the Fed’s jumbo half-percentage-point rate reduction in September. Despite her mild ‘hawkish’ tone, the dollar index (DXY) hit an overnight high of 106.92 before fizzling out to drift lower towards 106.60 by the end of this session.
What does it mean for the Asia Session?
RBA Governor Michele Bullock will be speaking at the Women in Payments Symposium in Sydney this morning. Although the topic will be focused on payment systems, Governor Bullock could touch on the outlook for future monetary policy action. Meanwhile, Bank of Japan (BoJ) Governor Kazuo Ueda will be speaking at the Paris EUROPLACE Tokyo International Financial Forum in Tokyo although the timing of his speech has yet to be officially confirmed by the central bank. Governor Bullock’s and Governor Ueda’s remarks could inject higher volatility for their respective currencies during this session.
The Dollar Index (DXY)
Key news events today
Unemployment Claims (1:30 pm GMT)
What can we expect from DXY today?
Unemployment claims have moderated lower since the surge in early October, due to impact of strikes at Boeing as well as disruptions caused by various hurricane-related incidents in cities in the Gulf of Mexico, falling from 260K to 217K in the latest reading. The 4-week average has also drifted lower since October and it currently sits at 221K while this week’s forecast of 220K points to another week of ‘anchored’ figures. Should claims continue to edge lower, it will likely provide a near-term tailwind for the greenback.
Central Bank Notes:
- The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System voted unanimously to lower the Federal Funds Rate target range by 25 basis points to 4.50% to 4.75% on 7th November.
- The Committee seeks to achieve maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2% over the longer run 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 labour market conditions have generally eased, 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.
- 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 17 to 18 December 2024.
Next 24 Hours Bias
Strong Bullish
Gold (XAU)
Key news events today
Unemployment Claims (1:30 pm GMT)
What can we expect from Gold today?
Unemployment claims have moderated lower since the surge in early October, due to impact of strikes at Boeing as well as disruptions caused by various hurricane-related incidents in cities in the Gulf of Mexico, falling from 260K to 217K in the latest reading. The 4-week average has also drifted lower since October and it currently sits at 221K while this week’s forecast of 220K points to another week of ‘anchored’ figures. Should claims continue to edge lower, it will likely provide a near-term tailwind for the greenback and potentially weigh on gold prices.
Next 24 Hours Bias
Medium Bullish
The Australian Dollar (AUD)
Key news events today
RBA Gov Bullock Speaks (8:00 am GMT)
What can we expect from AUD today?
RBA Governor Michele Bullock will be speaking at the Women in Payments Symposium in Sydney this morning. Although the topic will be focused on payment systems, Governor Bullock could touch on the outlook for future monetary policy action – her remarks could inject higher volatility for the Aussie during the Asian trading hours.
Central Bank Notes:
- The RBA kept the cash rate target unchanged at 4.35% on 5th November, marking the eighth consecutive pause.
- Inflation has fallen substantially since the peak in 2022, as higher interest rates have been working to bring aggregate demand and supply closer towards balance but the forecasts published in today’s Statement on Monetary Policy (SMP) do not see inflation returning sustainably to the midpoint of the target until 2026.
- Headline inflation was 2.8% over the year to the September quarter, down from 3.8% over the year to the June quarter; this was as expected due to declines in fuel and electricity prices in the September quarter.
- However, this decline reflects a temporary cost of living relief; abstracting from these effects, underlying inflation (as represented by the trimmed mean) was 3.5% over the year to the September quarter and is still some way from the 2.5% midpoint of the inflation target.
- Growth in output has been weak as past declines in real disposable incomes and the ongoing effect of restrictive financial conditions continue to weigh on household consumption, particularly discretionary consumption.
- However, growth in aggregate consumer demand, which includes spending by temporary residents such as students and tourists, has remained more resilient.
- A range of indicators suggest that labour market conditions remain tight, and while conditions have been easing gradually, some indicators have recently stabilised.
- Employment grew strongly over the three months to September, by an average of 0.4% per month but the unemployment rate was 4.1% in September, up from the trough of 3.5% in late 2022.
- While headline inflation has declined substantially and will remain lower for a time, underlying inflation is more indicative of inflation momentum, and it remains too high while the November SMP forecasts suggest that it will be some time yet before inflation is sustainably in the target range and approaching the midpoint.
- This reinforces 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 it will continue to rely upon the data and the evolving assessment of risks to guide its decisions.
- Next meeting is on 10 December 2024.
Next 24 Hours Bias
Medium Bearish
The Kiwi Dollar (NZD)
Key news events today
No major news events.
What can we expect from NZD today?
Elevated demand for the dollar caused the Kiwi to hit an overnight low of 0.5863 before finding its footing around this zone. This currency pair was edging higher towards 0.5900 at the beginning of the Asia session but it could resume the downtrend in the latter part of the day – the support and resistance levels for today.
Support: 0.5840
Resistance: 0.5940
Central Bank Notes:
- The Monetary Policy Committee agreed to reduce the OCR by 50 basis points, bringing it down to 4.75% in October as inflation converges to target.
- The Committee assesses that annual consumer price inflation is within its 1 to 3% inflation target range and converging on the 2% midpoint.
- Economic activity in New Zealand is subdued, in part due to restrictive monetary policy while business investment and consumer spending have been weak, and employment conditions continue to soften.
- The economy is now in a position of excess capacity, encouraging price- and wage-setting to adjust to a low-inflation economy; lower import prices have assisted the disinflation.
- High-frequency indicators point to continued subdued growth in the near term, mostly due to weak consumer spending and business investment while labour market conditions are expected to ease further, with filled jobs and advertised vacancy rates continuing to decline.
- The Committee confirmed that future changes to the OCR would depend on its evolving assessment of the economy.
- Next meeting is on 27 November 2024.
Next 24 Hours Bias
Medium Bearish
The Japanese Yen (JPY)
Key news events today
BoJ Governor Kazuo Ueda (Tentative)
What can we expect from JPY today?
Bank of Japan (BoJ) Governor Kazuo Ueda will be speaking at the Paris EUROPLACE Tokyo International Financial Forum in Tokyo although the timing of his speech has yet to be officially confirmed by the central bank. His remarks are likely to have a huge impact on the yen during the Asia session.
Central Bank Notes:
- The Policy Board of the Bank of Japan decided on 31st October, by a unanimous vote, to set the following guideline for money market operations for the intermeeting period:
- The Bank will encourage the uncollateralized overnight call rate to remain at around 0.25%.
- The Bank will embark 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 consumer price index (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.
- While the effects of a pass-through to consumer prices of cost increases led by the past rise in import prices are expected to wane, 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.
- Comparing the projections with those presented in the previous Outlook for Economic Activity and Prices (Outlook Report), the projected real GDP growth rates are more or less unchanged. The projected year-on-year rate of increase in the CPI (all items less fresh food) for fiscal 2025 is somewhat lower due to factors such as the recent decline in crude oil and other resource prices.
- 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 19 December 2024.
Next 24 Hours Bias
Weak Bullish
The Euro (EUR)
Key news events today
No major news events.
What can we expect from EUR today?
Robust demand for the dollar drove the Euro to hit a low of 1.0506 on Wednesday before stabilizing around 1.0520. This currency pair was climbing steadily towards 1.0550 as Asian markets came online but overhead pressures remain – these are the support and resistance levels for today.
Support: 1.0500
Resistance: 1.0600
Central Bank Notes:
- The Governing Council reduced the three key ECB interest rates by 25 basis points on 17th October to mark the second successive rate cut.
- 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 3.40%, 3.65% and 3.25% respectively.
- The incoming information on inflation shows that the disinflationary process is well on track while the inflation outlook is also affected by recent downside surprises in indicators of economic activity.
- Inflation is expected to rise in the coming months, before declining to target in the course of next year. Domestic inflation remains high, as wages are still rising at an elevated pace. At the same time, labour cost pressures are set to continue easing gradually, with profits partially buffering their impact on inflation.
- 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 12 December 2024.
Next 24 Hours Bias
Medium Bearish
The Swiss Franc (CHF)
Key news events today
No major news events.
What can we expect from CHF today?
With no real pull in either direction this week, USD/CHF has ranged between the bounds between 0.8800 and 0.8900 thus far. This currency pair was floating around 0.8830 at the beginning of the Asia session and it could edge lower as the day progresses – these are the support and resistance levels for today.
Support: 0.8800
Resistance: 0.8900
Central Bank Notes:
- The SNB eased monetary policy by lowering its key policy rate by 25 basis points for the third consecutive meeting, going from 1.25% to 1.00% in September.
- Inflationary pressure has again decreased significantly compared to the previous quarter, reflecting the appreciation of the Swiss franc over the last three months.
- Inflation in the period since the last monetary policy assessment was lower than expected, standing at 1.1% in August compared to 1.4% in May.
- The new conditional inflation forecast is significantly lower than that of June: 1.2% for 2024, 0.6% for 2025 and 0.7% for 2026, based on the assumption that the SNB policy rate is 1.0% over the entire forecast horizon.
- Swiss GDP growth was solid in the second quarter of 2024 as momentum in the chemicals/pharmaceuticals industry was particularly strong.
- However, growth is likely to remain rather modest in the coming quarters due to the recent appreciation of the Swiss franc and the moderate development of the global economy.
- The SNB anticipates GDP growth of around 1% this year while currently expecting growth of around 1.5% for 2025.
- Further cuts in the SNB policy rate may become necessary in the coming quarters to ensure price stability over the medium term.
- Next meeting is on 12 December 2024.
Next 24 Hours Bias
Weak Bullish
The Pound (GBP)
Key news events today
No major news events.
What can we expect from GBP today?
Following Wednesday’s hot inflation print, demand for the pound initially spiked causing Cable to briefly surge past 1.2700 to touch 1.2715 before reversing sharply. This currency pair fell under 1.2700 overnight and continued to slide lower as Asian markets came online – these are the support and resistance levels for today.
Support: 1.2615
Resistance: 1.2730
Central Bank Notes:
- The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted by a majority of 8 to 1 to reduce the Bank Rate by 25 basis points, to 4.75% on 7th November 2024 – one member preferred to maintain the Bank rate at 5.0%.
- 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, starting in October 2024.
- Twelve-month CPI inflation fell to 1.7% in September but is expected to increase to around 2.5% by the end of the year as weakness in energy prices falls out of the annual comparison; services consumer price inflation has declined to 4.9%.
- CPI inflation is expected to increase to around 2.75% by the second half of 2025 as weakness in energy prices falls out of the annual comparison, revealing more clearly the continuing persistence of domestic inflationary pressures.
- The MPC’s latest projections for activity and inflation are also set out in the accompanying November Report; this forecast is based on the second case where CPI inflation is projected to fall back to around the 2% target in the medium term as a margin of slack emerges later in the forecast period that acts against second-round effects in domestic prices and wages.
- GDP had grown by 0.5% in 2024 Q2, 0.2% weaker than had been expected in the August Report, and 0.1% weaker than the earlier outturn had indicated at the time of the MPC’s previous meeting. Through the second half of 2024, GDP was projected to grow at a somewhat slower rate than in Q2 – headline GDP growth is expected to fall back to its recent underlying pace of around 0.25% per quarter over the second half of this year.
- The combined effects of the measures announced in Autumn Budget 2024 are provisionally expected to boost the level of GDP by around 0.75% at their peak in a year’s time, relative to the August projections, while the Budget is provisionally expected to boost CPI inflation by just under 0.5% at the peak.
- Annual private sector regular average weekly earnings growth has continued to fall but remained elevated at 4.8% in the three months to August; the MPC judges that the labour market continues to loosen, although it appears relatively tight by historical standards.
- Based on the evolving evidence, a gradual approach to removing policy restraint remains appropriate but 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 19 December 2024.
Next 24 Hours Bias
Medium Bearish
The Canadian Dollar (CAD)
Key news events today
No major news events.
What can we expect from CAD today?
Hotter-than-expected consumer inflation data on Tuesday continued to bolster the Loonie on Wednesday as USD/CAD fell under the threshold of 1.4000 once again. This currency pair was sliding lower towards 1.3940 at the beginning of the Asia session – these are the support and resistance levels for today.
Support: 1.3940
Resistance: 1.4050
Central Bank Notes:
- The Bank of Canada reduced its target for the overnight rate by 50 basis points bringing it down to 3.75% while continuing its policy of balance sheet normalization on 23rd October; this marked the fourth consecutive meeting where rates were reduced.
- Canada’s economy grew at around 2% in the first half of the year and growth of 1.75% is expected in the second half; consumption has continued to grow but is declining on a per person basis while exports have been boosted by the opening of the Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline.
- Overall, the Bank forecasts GDP growth of 1.2% in 2024, 2.1% in 2025, and 2.3% in 2026 – as the economy strengthens, excess supply is gradually absorbed.
- The labour market remains soft with unemployment at 6.5% in September while wage growth remains elevated relative to productivity growth. Overall, the economy continues to be in excess supply.
- Headline CPI has declined significantly from 2.7% in June to 1.6% in September while shelter costs inflation remains elevated but has begun to ease; the preferred measures of core inflation are now below 2.5%.
- Excess supply elsewhere in the economy has reduced inflation in the prices of many goods and services while the drop in global oil prices has led to lower gasoline prices – these factors have all combined to bring inflation down.
- The Bank expects inflation to remain close to the target over the projection horizon, with the upward and downward pressures on inflation roughly balancing out; the upward pressure from shelter and other services gradually diminishes, and the downward pressure on inflation recedes as excess supply in the economy is absorbed.
- With inflation now back around the 2% target, the Governing Council decided to reduce the policy rate by 50 basis points to support economic growth and keep inflation close to the middle of the 1% to 3% range.
- If the economy evolves broadly in line with the latest forecast, further reduction of the policy rate can be expected but the timing and pace of additional reductions in the policy rate will be guided by incoming information and assessment of its implications for the inflation outlook.
- The Bank is committed to maintaining price stability for Canadians by keeping inflation close to the 2% target.
- Next meeting is on 11 December 2024.
Next 24 Hours Bias
Weak Bearish
Oil
Key news events today
No major news events.
What can we expect from Oil today?
A third successive week of higher-than-anticipated builds in the EIA inventories capped oil prices on Wednesday as 0.55M barrels of crude were added to storage. However crude prices remain supported on concerns about the intensifying conflict between Russia and Ukraine as WTI oil remained above $68.50 per barrel. This benchmark has failed to climb above the $70-mark this week but should geopolitical tensions escalate further, oil prices are likely to close out the week with strong gains.
Next 24 Hours Bias
Weak Bearish
