- Japan's Katayama: Alarmed over currency moves, will take appropriate action
- Canada October retail sales -0.2% vs 0.0% expected
- ECB's Lane on why the ECB is cutting into a sticky-inflation slowing economy
- US November existing home sales 4.13m vs 4.15m expected
- December final UMich consumer sentiment 52.9 vs 53.4 expected
- Fed's Williams: CPI data had some distortions, may have been pushed down a bit
- Fed's Waller had 'a strong interview' but the market isn't buying it
Markets:
- USD leads, JPY lags
- Gold up $6 to $4337
- WTI crude oil up 54-cents to $56.54
- US 10-year yields down 3.3 bps to 4.15%
- S&P 500 up 0.9%
The US dollar made some modest headway against the rest of the FX market today bu the big movement was in the yen as USD/JPY rose 220 pips and EUR/JPY hit another record high. The jump started after an initial dip on the BOJ decision. It looks like sellers were hoping the hike would cool the pair and then when it didn't, it was off to the races. The move was large enough that it prompted some tough intervention talk from finance minister Katayama. That didn't little to stop it as a quick 40 pips dip was almost immediately bought. The bids continued right until the end of the day as the pair closed at the highs.
In terms of news, the Canadian retail sales headline was soft but the advance number for November was strong at +1.2%. That led to some early USD/JPY selling down to 1.3760 but it reversed later and the pair finished near 1.3800 with the loonie among the laggards.
Flows were dominant as we wind down the year so it's tough to draw any conclusions.
In equities, it was quad witching and a record estimated $7.1 trillion opex. I thought that might lock up trading but there were some good gains. Eminis ultimately ended just below 6800, which would have been a natural options magnet. Nvidia was a leader along with some travel and chip memory names. Nike was a laggard falling 10% as tariffs eroded margins.
Have a great weekend.
