18 Feb 2015
BoJ meeting eyed - Westpac
FXStreet (Bali) - Sean Callow, FX Strategist at Westpac, breaks down the key events for Wednesday, highlighting the BoJ policy meeting as the main focus in Asia.
Key Quotes
"The Bank of Japan announces its policy decision today, without a fixed time as usual. Most decisions come in the 11:30am-12:30pm Tokyo hour (+2 hours for Sydney, -1 for Sing), with occasional decisions nearer 2pm (often policy changes). Judging by nervous trade on USD/JPY last week, there could be at least a kneejerk dip in the pair on no change. The Kuroda press conference is due around 5:30pm Sydney."
"A quiet calendar in Australia for the remainder of the week. Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and S Korea are closed for the lunar new year holidays. Singapore doesn’t officially begin its holidays until Thu but many will leave their desks early today."
"The BoE minutes will be released. The Jan MPC minutes showed that there was a unanimous vote for no change in policy after a 7-2 split since Aug 2014, softer growth and weak inflation taking rate hikes off the agenda in the near term. The inflation report released last week however was more hawkish than expected. The UK unemployment rate is expected to remain at 5.8% in the 3 months to Dec."
"There will be several US data releases before we see the FOMC minutes of the 27-28 Jan meeting. US housing starts are expected to slow, -1.7%m/m. Risks are to the downside given the sensitivity of construction to the weather and the harsh weather in the north east. The market median for building permits, which is not weather-dependent, is more positive, 1.0%. Jan industrial production should tick up to 0.3% after a -0.1% print in Dec, though the ISM survey suggests that a soft trend should continue. The FOMC minutes could sound more hawkish than the statement, given the addition of the input from non-voting members."
Key Quotes
"The Bank of Japan announces its policy decision today, without a fixed time as usual. Most decisions come in the 11:30am-12:30pm Tokyo hour (+2 hours for Sydney, -1 for Sing), with occasional decisions nearer 2pm (often policy changes). Judging by nervous trade on USD/JPY last week, there could be at least a kneejerk dip in the pair on no change. The Kuroda press conference is due around 5:30pm Sydney."
"A quiet calendar in Australia for the remainder of the week. Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and S Korea are closed for the lunar new year holidays. Singapore doesn’t officially begin its holidays until Thu but many will leave their desks early today."
"The BoE minutes will be released. The Jan MPC minutes showed that there was a unanimous vote for no change in policy after a 7-2 split since Aug 2014, softer growth and weak inflation taking rate hikes off the agenda in the near term. The inflation report released last week however was more hawkish than expected. The UK unemployment rate is expected to remain at 5.8% in the 3 months to Dec."
"There will be several US data releases before we see the FOMC minutes of the 27-28 Jan meeting. US housing starts are expected to slow, -1.7%m/m. Risks are to the downside given the sensitivity of construction to the weather and the harsh weather in the north east. The market median for building permits, which is not weather-dependent, is more positive, 1.0%. Jan industrial production should tick up to 0.3% after a -0.1% print in Dec, though the ISM survey suggests that a soft trend should continue. The FOMC minutes could sound more hawkish than the statement, given the addition of the input from non-voting members."