BoC And RBNZ Interest Rate Decision Looms

Image via Bank of Canada / Flickr. Governor Poloz and SDG Wilkins participate in the MPR press conference

Today’s Economic events

Australia Westpac Consumer sentiment -2.20% vs. 4.20% previously

Japan M2 Money stock y/y 3.10% vs. 3.20%

Australia home loans m/m -3.90% vs. -2.70%

Japan prelim machine tool orders y/y -22.60% vs. -17.20%

UK manufacturing production m/m 0.70% vs. 0.20%

UK industrial production m/m 0.30% vs. 0.60%

Coming up

BoC Rate decision

The US wholesale inventories

The Asian markets closed in the red today with the Nikkei225 losing -0.84% while the Shanghai composite was down -1.35%. The Yen continued to strengthen in early Asian trading. USD/JPY fell to session lows below 112.35 before recovering with gains of 0.06% at the time of writing. The Australian dollar is trading near a new session today, trading near $0.749 as the AUD/USD managed to recover the losses from yesterday. The currency is up 0.50% at the time of writing. Economic data from Australia included the Westpac consumer sentiment which fell less than expected at -2.20%. Home loans data also declined -3.90% more than the forecasted -2.70%.

The Kiwi erased all the losses from yesterday as NZD/USD initially fell to session lows of $0.672 before posting a strong recovery to gain 0.30% at the time of writing. Prices are hovering near the $0.68 handle ahead of the RBNZ’s interest rate decision this evening.

In Europe, the equity markets were showing signs of recovery following two days of declines. The German DAX is up 1.27% while the London FTSE100 gained 0.68% for the day. Economic data from Europe was limited to the UK’s manufacturing and industrial production numbers which were mixed. While manufacturing increased 0.70% in February, industrial production grew at a slower pace of 0.30% below forecasts of 0.60%. GBP/USD, which turned weaker yesterday was down -0.02% at the time of writing with price action staying flat for the most part, currently trading at $1.421.