Marketwatch North America

Daily Insights
September 21, 2023

The FOMC left its official rate unchanged (target 5.25%-5.50%) at yesterday’s rate policy announcement. No change was expected so market attention was focused on the phrasing of the statement itself and Fed Chairman Powell’s post-announcement press conference. In his prepared remarks delivered at the beginning of the press conference Powell wasted no time striking a hawkish tone:

  • The process of getting inflation sustainably down to 2 percent has a long way to go.
  • We are committed to achieving and sustaining a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to bring inflation down to our 2 percent goal over time.
  • We remain committed to bringing inflation back down to our 2 percent goal and to keeping longer-term inflation expectations well anchored.

U.S. Treasury yields are sharply higher in the long-term tenors with the 20-year yield leading, +0.087. The benchmark 10-year yield is +12.4 basis points since Tuesday’s close and trading at fresh multi-year highs, currently 4.479%.

The USD has followed yields higher, lifting the U.S. Dollar Index by 0.42% to 105.60. The DXY gapped higher at the start of trading today, opening at 105.437 after closing yesterday at 105.12. The dollar has advanced against 9/10 of the G10 currencies, primary gains: +0.72% vs. SEK, +0.68% vs. AUD, +0.62% vs. CHF, +0.58% vs. GBP. The dollar’s lone G10 loss is -0.28% vs. JPY.

Dollar gains also span across emerging market currencies: +0.88% vs. BRL, +0.59% vs. ZAR, and +0.53% vs. MXN.

Global equity indexes are all lower and equity futures are signaling declines in the S&P500, Nasdaq100 and DOW at today’s open.

The Bank of England left rates unchanged at today’s policy announcement.

U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims for the week ending September 16th were 201k, below the 225k estimate and its lowest tally since January of this year.

Economic Calendar

:
GBP - Monetary Policy Summary
:
AUD - RBA Bulletin
:
USD - Unemployment Claims
:
NZD - Credit Card Spending y/y
:
USD - Existing Home Sales
:
GBP - Public Sector Net Borrowing
:
CHF - SNB Monetary Policy Assessment
:
CHF - SNB Policy Rate
:
CHF - SNB Press Conference
:
EUR - German Buba President Nagel Speaks
:
GBP - MPC Official Bank Rate Votes
:
GBP - Official Bank Rate
:
GBP - BOE Inflation Letter
:
CAD - NHPI m/m
:
USD - Philly Fed Manufacturing Index
:
USD - Current Account
:
EUR - ECB President Lagarde Speaks
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EUR - Consumer Confidence
:
USD - CB Leading Index m/m
:
USD - Natural Gas Storage
:
NZD - Westpac Consumer Sentiment
:
NZD - Trade Balance
:
AUD - Flash Manufacturing PMI
:
AUD - Flash Services PMI
:
GBP - GfK Consumer Confidence
:
JPY - National Core CPI y/y

Market Indicators

Currency Pairs
Pair High Low
usd/jpy 148.457 147.699
eur/usd 1.06646 1.06168
gbp/usd 1.23314 1.22288
aud/usd 0.64402 0.63841
usd/cad 1.35198 1.34713
eur/gbp 0.86939 0.86267
usd/mxn 17.2494 17.0635
Equities and Commodities
S&P 500 4370.52
NASDAQ 14801.9
DOW 34278
GOLD 1915.49
SILVER 22.9

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.