- Trump: May make tariff changes to lower some prices
- US November NFIB small business optimism index 99.0 vs 98.3 expected
- China set to limit access to Nvidia's H200 chips - FT
- ECB's Nagel: AI offers tools to process vast datasets and can improve predictive accuracy
- The JPY is free-falling again despite incoming BoJ rate hike and constant jawboning
- BoJ Governor Ueda: Believe the economy will go back to positive growth in Q4 and beyond
- Germany October trade balance €16.9 billion vs €15.6 billion expected
- FX option expiries for 9 December 10am New York cut
- Japan PM Takaichi: Specifics of monetary policy up to BoJ
- BoJ Governor Ueda: Certainty of BoJ's outlook materialising is increasing gradually
- What are the main events for today?
- Japan PM Takaichi: Will take appropriate actions on FX if necessary
- investingLive Asia-pacific market news wrap: RBA introduces a clear hawkish bias
- RBA's Bullock: If data suggests inflation not slowing, that will be considered in February
The most notable mover in the session was the Japanese Yen. The JPY continues to weaken across the board despite the incoming BoJ rate hike and constant jawboning from Japanese officials.
Part of the problem could be that the BoJ waited far too long and it's now looking to deliver a cautious rate hike right when other major central banks are shifting to a hawkish stance.
The market has also already priced in a rate hike this month and at very least another in 2026, so it's hard to see the BoJ outhawking the market pricing, leaving limited room for JPY appreciation on a hawkish repricing.
We also got a report from Financial Times saying that Chinese regulators have been discussing ways to permit limited access to H200 chips. No final decision had been made yet though. For context, Trump yesterday announced that the US will allow Nvidia to sell H200 chips to China.
US equity indices weakned a bit on the headline but recovered quickly as this news isn't new. In fact, China has been implementing restrictions on foreign AI chips like Nvidia, AMD and so on in state-funded data centers to boost domestic tech as they compete with the US.
Lastly, Politico published an interview with Trump in which he said that he may consider changes to tariffs to lower prices. He also said that the willingness to lower interest rates would be a litmus test in the choice of a new Fed chair.
Lowering tariffs further would be certainly bullish for the global economy but at this point it could also stoke inflation given that central banks responded to the negative shock from tariffs with lower interest rates. Therefore, it might be bullish in the short-term but if things get hot, central banks will be forced to tighten again, and that would be negative for risk assets.
