- Travellers to Taiwan now required to have six COVID-19 tests
- FX option expiries for 17 December 2021 at the 10am New York cut
- BOJ leaves main monetary policy tools unchanged
- Goldman Sachs says Omicron hasn't had much of an impact on mobility and oil demand
- (Small) Australian town placed in lockdown
- Bank of Japan monetary policy statement due soon - some support may be removed
- Federal Reserve speakers coming up on 17 December 2021 - Daly and Waller
- China has revised its 2020 GDP growth to 2.2% y/y
- The UK softens its stance on Northern Ireland - looks for an interim agreement with the EU
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY mid-point today at 6.3651 (vs. estimate at 6.3619)
- Japan PM Kishida asks Pfizer to bring forward Japan's contracted supply of COVID19 vaccine
- Singapore exports rose at their fastest in almost 10 years in November
- ICYMI - Électricité de France is taking 4 nuclear reactors offline next month
- Australia's Frydenberg says China's property market poses a risk to the global outlook
- UK data - December GfK consumer confidence -15 (prior -14)
- New Zealand Activity Outlook 11.8 (prior 15) & Business confidence -23.2 ( prior -16.4)
- France's Macron says will make COVID-19 decisions based on hospitalisations
- US President Biden has conceded his BBB bill won’t get passed this year
- Australian state Queensland widens mask mandate
- The talks with Iran over a nuclear deal will halt on Friday 17 December 2021
- The UK and Australia have signed a trade deal
- NZ finmin Robertson says the economy remains resilient in the face of the pandemic
- Trade ideas thread for Friday 17 December 2021 (take 2!)
- US President Biden warns that the Omicron variant will 'spread much more rapidly'
The Bank of Japan monetary policy statement today was not nearly as dramatic as the Federal Reserve nor the Bank of England earlier in the week. The BOJ left its main policy measures unchanged but did say it’d be ‘tapering’ some of its extra coronavirus support programs after March of 2022. In a nutshell support for larger firms will be gradually scaled back while support for small firms will be extended by another 6 months.
USD/JPY had trade a touch higher in morning trade to levels just over 113.80 before retracing back to sit above 113.60 into the BOJ statement. There it has remained since the statement was issued. Next on the agenda from the Bank of Japan is Governor Kuroda’s press conference at 0630 GMT.
The small range in USD/JPY was the case for most other major FX. AUD, NZD and CAD are all a touch weaker against the USD though and are testing US’ Thursday lows as I post (in small ranges).
USD/CAD testing its Thursday US time high:
