Inflation in Japan remained unchanged year-over-year, and far below the Bank of Japan’s 2% target, spurring immediate rumours for the need of further easing from the BOJ – though this was quickly refuted by BOJ’s Kuroda by stating “no plan to push rates further negative”. USDJPY initially fell on the news, though has retraced most of the losses and is currently trading only slightly lower. Oil finished the day higher yesterday, after spending most of the day in negative territory, after OPEC members and Russia confirmed a meeting in March regarding the capping of production at January levels. This headline news caused USDCAD to drop 1.45% from its highs, and more than 8% from its late January highs of 1.46. G-20 meetings have gotten underway today in Shanghai where finance ministers will be discussing ideas on how to boost economic growth. Meanwhile, the US will once again take centre stage when it publishes its fourth quarter preliminary GDP figure this afternoon. The anticipation is for the US economy to have grown at a meagre 0.4%, down from the initial 0.7% reported last month. In addition to the GDP data, investors will also be watching PCE figures, the FED’s preferred measure of inflation, as well as personal spending and personal income – all of which are forecasted to have grown month-on-month. Finally, consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan is expected to have grown slightly to 91.1 vs 90.7 last month, despite consumer confidence plunging earlier this week. Lastly, several FED members, including Jerome Powell (neutral) and Lael Brainard (dove) will be speaking later this evening. |
