USDJPY is fading a spike to 128.48 highs after the Bank of Japan (BOJ) intervened in the bond market to defend the yield cap at 0.25% for another day.The BOJ offered to buy unlimited 10year Japanese government bonds (JGBs) at 0.25% conducting consecutive unlimited fixedrate purchases for the second day in a row.After witnessing a volatile session on Wednesday traders [read more]

The Swiss franc notched a 12month low of 0.946 per USD pressured by a strong dollar after large inflation figures strengthened market expectations of a 50bps rate hike by the Fed and the start of its balance sheet runoff process. Meanwhile sight deposits at the SNB rose by CHF 2.2 billion in the week ending April 8th from the previous week following the CHF 5.7 billion jump from the prior week. The deposit increases are widely seen as a proxy for the central banks foreign currency interventions dictating the amount of credit [read more]

The euro depreciated to below the $1.08 level for the first time since May 2020 on uncertainty about the timing of interest rate hikes in the Euro Area. The ECB said that any adjustments to interest rates will take place some time after the end of the Governing Councils net purchases under the APP and will be gradual and reinforced its expectation that net asset purchases under its asset purchase programme should be concluded in the third quarter. In Europe investors are also concerned about the hit to economic growth from the [read more]

The British pound hovered around $1.30 close to a 17month low of $1.297 on April 13th as high inflation pressures arising from soaring energy prices are hurting households purchasing power and squeezing their finances. The latest UK CPI report showed the inflation rate hit a 30year high of 7% in March pressuring the BoE to tight faster. Markets expect the Bank of England to raise rates to 1% during the meeting on May 5th and see 140 basis points of hikes by yearend. Elsewhere investors scaled bets of aggressive Federal Reserve tightening [read more]

The Australian dollar rose toward $0.74 on April 19 after sliding for three straight sessions as minutes of the latest Reserve Bank of Australia meeting suggested it was edging closer to raising interest rates for the first time in more than a decade due to accelerating inflation and rising wages. Data for consumer prices are due on April 26 and analysts suspect it will show core inflation jumped 1% or more in the first quarter to lift the annual pace to at least 3.2%. That would be the first time core inflation [read more]

WTI crude futures bottomed around $101 per barrel a dramatic reversal from its daily highs of $104 as investors weighted a weakening global economic outlook and concerns about subdued demand in top consumer China against tighter supplies from Russia and Libya. The IMF and the Global Bank slashed their forecast for world economic growth following Russias invasion of Ukraine. At the same time renewed coronavirusinduced lockdowns in China clouded the demand outlook in the worlds top crude importer. Putting a floor under prices were supplies disruptions from Libya because of a wave [read more]