In the April BOJ meeting, rates were kept on hold at 0.1% and the Yen weakened and opens at 156. Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said he would respond firmly in the foreign exchange market if needed, though he declined to characterize the latest movement and we are all keen to know where that line in the sand is, as these are 34 year lows for the currency.
Away from the currency world the equity markets are busy, domestically the Mining Mega Merger catches the headlines as Anglo American rejects the BHP Groups Proposal and in the US Alphabet crushed sales estimates and announced a dividend. Whilst fellow mega cap Microsoft also beat forecasts, lifted by corporate demand for the software maker’s cloud and artificial-intelligence offerings. In Asia the Nikkei was +0.81% and the Hang Seng was +2.58%.
Marketwise, West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.3% to $83.86 a barrel, spot gold rose 0.1% to $2,335.05 an ounce, the yield on 10-year Treasuries declined one basis point to 4.69%. Bitcoin fell 0.8% to $64,293.51 and Ether fell 1.1% to $3,138.37. Data wise the European session brings French consumer confidence, Spanish retail sales and unemployment data, and the ECB’s 1 and 3-year inflation expectations. In the US the key release of the day will be the March PCE deflator. The core deflator is expected to print in-line with last month at 0.3% m-o-m, while the YoY figure falls 1-tick to 2.7%. Finally it is the University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey at 3pm and there are earnings from Exxon Mobil, and Chevron.
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