FOMC Minutes in focus today – RBC CM

Sue Trinh, Head of Asia FX Strategy at RBC Capital Markets, explains that setting the stage for today’s FOMC Minutes, the Fed’s Harker said that he retained his hawkish stance of three hikes for 2017 and that a June hike is a “distinct possibility”.

Key Quotes

“The focus will be on the pace of the tightening path and discussions about balance sheet reduction. RBC thinks the next wave of information about the balance sheet unwind is much more likely to come at the June meeting, but there is an outside chance of some additional news about the approach that will be used to shrink the sheet. The remaining issues are timing, tapering, and the pace of runoff. Any further elaborating on these could be market-moving. BoC’s rate decision is also in focus today.”