Headlines:
- Gold recovers from yesterday's drop as precious metals continue to find bids
- SNB leaves key policy rate unchanged at 0% in September monetary policy decision
- SNB chairman Schlegel: The bar for negative rates is higher than for a normal rate cut
- SNB chairman Schlegel: We are prepared to cut interest rates below zero if required
- SNB chairman Schlegel: We remain willing to be active in the FX market as necessary
- Heads up: There's going to be a barrage of Fed speakers coming up later in the day
- Fed's Miran: Other policymakers are more concerned about tariffs driving inflation
- ECB's Kazimir: Inflation goal met, we will act only if needed
- Germany October GfK consumer sentiment -22.3 vs -23.3 expected
- France September consumer confidence 87 vs 87 expected
- Eurozone August M3 money supply +2.9% vs +3.3% y/y expected
- UK September CBI retailing reported sales -29 vs -32 prior
Markets:
- JPY leads, GBP lags on the day
- European equities lower; S&P 500 futures down 0.4%
- US 10-year yields up 1.3 bps to 4.160%
- Gold up 0.4% to $3,751.93
- WTI crude oil down 0.3% to $64.77
- Bitcoin down 1.9% to $111,468
It was a quieter session with the SNB policy decision being the main highlight, but even that was very much a non-event. The Swiss central bank left rates unchanged, sticking to its zero interest rate policy stance now. And that was the only notable event on the session really.
That said, there were some decent market moves but just not in the FX space. Major currencies were largely muted with little change across the board. The dollar is steadier with EUR/USD and USD/JPY both holding flattish on the day at 1.1740 and 148.80 respectively now. The pound is the laggard but even that doesn't say a lot when it is only down 0.2% against the dollar at 1.3420.
Overall, there's nothing to really scrutinise in the major currencies bloc as we await more US data later.
In other markets though, equities are continuing to cool off with European indices and US futures retreating further after the selling in the past two days. Is this how we move towards a more meaningful pullback for stocks down the road? Well, if anything I'd argue that it'll be a healthy one amid the surging run to fresh record highs despite everything else as of late.
And in the commodities space, we did see gold and silver jump up a little in bouncing back after some profit-taking yesterday. Of note, the latter broke above $45 for the first time since 2011 but is now chilling a little at $44.82 - still up over 2% on the day.
It's on to more US data and Fedspeak up next.
