FX Daily Planet: Sydney/Asia Open

Global FX Strategy

FX Daily Planet: Sydney/Asia Open

View for the day The Norges bank kept rates on hold today, and the accompanying statement was a tad more dovish than expected as there was no discussion of a rate hike. Although the omission of these comments does not preclude a hike next month; it does suggest that the Norges Bank feels under no great urgency to move, and there is certainly a greater risk of no change in rates next month. This is somewhat of a disappointment for NOK which is near the bottom of today’s worst currencies list. Elsewhere in the markets, the USD continues to drive higher across the board in afternoon trading, and US equities are currently down by around 0.3% in a rather choppy session. Today featured several notable economics releases in the US session.

The non-manufacturing ISM increased to 50.5 from 49.8, near expectations. Orders increased to 54.7 from 52 and the employment index also moved higher by 1pt to 44.6. The marginal improvement in today’s report confirms that while conditions ameliorate, the services sector of the economy remains sluggish, and continues to lag manufacturing by a wide margin. Also today, the ADP report indicated that private payrolls fell 22k in January, which according to our economics team is roughly consistent with a flat payrolls report this Friday. Despite this, the ADP figure has undershot the BLS number by 60k on average over the last 13 months. The JPM forecast is for a 10k gain i
NA

ends

© Scoop Media