Marketwatch EU & UK

Daily Insights
March 19, 2024

  • The Bank of Japan overnight raised its key interest rate for the first time since 2007, ending the world’s last negative interest rate regime. The central bank set a new policy rate of between 0% and 0.1%, scrapping its negative 0.1% rate and ended its yield curve control program. The BoJ has been an outlier against its global peers and continues to be, making its first upward interest rate move in 17 years just as other central banks around the world consider cutting policy rates after aggressively tightening to stem a flurry of global inflation. The Japanese yen lost ground against the greenback with USDJPY moving through 150.
  • Elsewhere, EURUSD and GBPUSD were subdued yesterday, with traders in ‘wait and see’ mode ahead of a series of key data releases and central bank meetings. EURUSD hovers below 1.09 as we await the release of the German ZEW survey this morning. GBPUSD slipped a touch overnight but continues to trade on a 1.27 handle as we look forward to tomorrow’s key UK CPI print, the FOMC meeting and Thursday’s BoE decision.
  • The Reserve Bank of Australia held its key policy rate at a 12-year high overnight, leaving the cash rate unchanged for a third straight meeting. In contrast to previous meetings the RBA board made no reference to the possibility of further rate increases, suggesting that its tightening cycle may have ended and the next move in rates could be down.

Economic Calendar

:
JPY - Monetary Policy Statement
:
JPY - BOJ Policy Rate
:
AUD - Cash Rate
:
AUD - RBA Rate Statement
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AUD - RBA Press Conference
:
JPY - Revised Industrial Production m/m
:
JPY - BOJ Press Conference
:
CNY - Foreign Direct Investment ytd/y
:
CHF - Trade Balance
:
CHF - SECO Economic Forecasts
:
EUR - German ZEW Economic Sentiment
:
EUR - ZEW Economic Sentiment
:
CAD - CPI m/m
:
CAD - Median CPI y/y
:
CAD - Trimmed CPI y/y
:
CAD - Common CPI y/y
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CAD - Core CPI m/m
:
USD - Building Permits
:
USD - Housing Starts
:
NZD - GDT Price Index
:
NZD - Westpac Consumer Sentiment
:
USD - TIC Long-Term Purchases
:
NZD - Current Account
:
JPY - Bank Holiday

Market Indicators

Currency Pairs
Pair High Low
eur/gbp 0.85516 0.8543
gbp/usd 1.27285 1.27014
gbp/aud 1.95011 1.93896
gbp/nzd 2.1001 2.09216
usd/jpy 150.435 148.974
eur/usd 1.08764 1.08618
gbp/jpy 191.196 189.598
eur/cnh 7.8389 7.8272
usd/cnh 7.20979 7.20322
Equities and Commodities
Nasdaq 100 17969.3
DOW 38827.9
S&P 500 5154.13
BRENT CRUDE 86.69
WTI 82.73
GOLD 2156.18

This document is for information purposes only and does not constitute any recommendation or solicitation to any person to enter into any transaction or adopt any trading strategy, nor does it constitute any prediction of likely future movements in exchange rates or prices or any representation that any such future movements will not exceed those shown on any illustration. All exchange rates and figures appearing are for illustrative purposes only. You are advised to make your own independent judgment with respect to any matter contained herein.

About Simon Walker

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Simon Walker is head of the GPS Capital Markets trade desk in our London office where he is responsible for covering market risk in European hours. He has over 25 years’ experience in foreign exchange, working in both sales and trading.