- Magnitude 5.2 earthquake near Fukushima prefecture in Japan
- WSJ report that Biden has reaffirmed US nuclear weapon use policy
- Still more from BOJ Gov Kuroda - Japan inflation driven mainly by higher energy costs
- Ukraine tells the US it needs 500 Javelins and 500 Stingers per day
- More again from BOJ Gov. Kuroda - powerful easing policy to be maintained
- More from BOJ Gov Kuroda: Says bank is buying sufficient JGBs
- Japan finance minister Suzuki says FX stability is important
- BOJ Gov Kuroda says watching FX moves carefully, stability is desirable
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY mid-point today at 6.3739 (vs. estimate at 6.3639)
- M 5.5 earthquake hit southern Peru
- China, India the buyers of Russian oil
- Russia precision-guided missiles failure rates up to 60% in its attack on Ukraine
- UK data - Vehicle production has its weakest February since 2009
- Senior US official says Russia will emerge from its invasion of Ukraine weaker
- UK data - Consumer confidence falls for the 4th month in a row
- Japan finance minister Suzuki says will consider steps to deal with price spikes next week
- More Japan data - Services PPI for February 1.1% y/y (vs. expected 1.2%)
- Tokyo inflation data for March 2022: Headline CPI 1.3% y/y (vs. expected 1.5%)
- Federal Reserve speakers coming up on Friday 25 March 2022
- Morgan Stanley forecasts 50bp rate hikes from the Federal Reserve in May and June
- Australia places further sanctions on Russia, also on Belarus
- Latest update on Ukraine from the UK Ministry of Defence
- ICYMI - German gas deal with Qatar
- Friday's drinking game will involve listening for 'FX stability' comments coming out Japan
- Oil - JP Morgan cuts its forecast for oil demand (mainly in Europe) due to the high price
- Forexlive Americas FX news wrap: USDJPY trades to highest level since December 2015
- ECB's Schnabel - if enter a deep recession the Bank may need to reconsider asset purchases
- Coronavirus - Australian authorities recommend a 4th vaccine dose for those over 65
- Trade ideas thread - Friday 25 March 2022
- Gold forecast from Morgan Stanley, higher in Q2, then fall later
- Media report that the US is in the final stages of a plan to supply more LNG to the EU
- US equity close: A lot has changed in two years
Let’s get the data out of the way – Japan (Tokyo area) CPI for March and Services PPI for February. The inflation data showed strong ‘headline’, but once stripped back the ‘core-core’ (i.e. excluding fresh food and energy and the nearest equivalent to US ‘core’ inflation) was still negative y/y.
Fresh news flow was light.
From Japan we had comments from the Finance Minister, Suzuki, and also from the Governor of the Bank of Japan, Kuroda. Both expressed a desire for more stable FX rates. This is code for a slower rate of fall for the yen. Similar remarks are trotted out from Japanese authorities whenever the feeling amongst them is that the yen FX rate is changing too quickly (in this case the yen is falling quickly). Bank of Japan Governor Kuroda’s comments went beyond this, though. More in the (multiple … he went on and on) bullets/posts above.
Staying with central banks, the People’s Bank of China set the day’s reference rate for the onshore yuan (CNY) weaker than was expected. USD/CNY was set around 100 points higher than was expected by Reuters, a significant difference.
EUR, yen, CHF, GBP all gained against the USD. NZD too and AUD, but not by much. USD/CAD is little net changed.
Gold, too little net change. Oil is up a touch.
